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CAMION    LETTERS 

FROM 
MEN  IN  THE  AMERICAN   FIELD  SERVICE 

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CAMION  LETTERS 

FROM 

MEN  IN  THE  AMERICAN  FIELD  SERVICE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/camionlettersfroOOsamp 


CAMION    LETTERS 

FROM  AMERICAN  COLLEGE  MEN 
VOLUNTEER  DRIVERS 

OF  THE 

AMERICAN  FIELD  SERVICE 
IN  FRANCE,  1917 


Duty,  and  the  bit  more  which  counted  .  ,  , 


NEW    YORK 

HENRY   HOLT   AND   COMPANY 

.1918 


COPTSIGBT,  I918 
BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


Published  January,  1918 


THI  OUINH  •   KOIN   CO.  fMM 

RAHWAT,    N.   t. 


INTRODUCTION 

This  is  a  volume  of  letters  written  by  young 
Americans  who  as  members  of  the  American 
Field  Service  volunteered  to  drive  the  heavy 
transport  trucks,  or  camions,  of  the  French  Army. 
Most  of  the  letters  are  from  the  Cornell  men 
who  formed  the  larger  part  of  the  first  section 
of  drivers  assigned  to  the  transport  work.  The 
straightforward  letters  are  self-explanatory,  but 
it  is  in  place  to  introduce  them  by  a  few  words 
telling  of  the  way  the  Service  engaged  in  the 
transport  of  war  materials. 

The  record  of  the  American  ambulances  in 
France  is  well  known.  Friends  of  France,  Am- 
bulance No.  10,  and  the  Diary  of  Section  VIII 
have  given  to  English-speaking  readers  the  story 
of  young  American  volunteers  in  France  doing 
their  duty  to  the  cause  they  had  voluntarily 
chosen  and  doing  it  so  well  as  to  win  for  them 
citation  after  citation  in  the  French  orders  of 
the  day,  and  the  Croix  de  Guerre  that  often  ac- 
companied the  citation.    More  than  one  hundred 

V 


vi  Camion  Letters 

young  American  collegians  wear  this  simple  cross, 
which  comes  to  no  recreant.  That  these  young 
men  were  representative  of  the  Service  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  French  Generals  vied  among 
themselves  to  have  the  American  anibulanciers 
attached  to  their  divisions.  It  is  a  record  of 
which  the  Service  is  proud  and  of  which  America 
may  well  be  proud. 

In  May,  191 7,  the  Paris  authorities  of  the 
American  Ambulance  Field  Service  in  France 
were  requested  by  the  French  Government  to  take 
over  as  much  as  was  feasible  of  the  transport 
work  of  one  of  the  French  Armies.  In  the  French 
forces  there  are  80,000  motor  vehicles  driven,  as 
far  as  France  can  make  it  possible,  by  men  whose 
age  or  physical  condition  unfits  them  for  active 
service  at  the  front.  To  release  these  men  meant 
to  replace  them  with  American  volunteers  and  to 
send  back  one  by  one  to  their  farms  or  to  Govern- 
mental offices  veteran  Frenchmen  whose  services 
were  needed  elsewhere  than  on  the  trucks.  The 
request,  highly  honoring  to  the  Service,  came 
partly  as  the  result  of  the  great  need  of  the  French 
for  additional  camionneurs,  or  drivers  of  heavy 
trucks,  and  partly  because  a  temporary  shortage 


Introduction  vii 


of  ambulances  threatened  to  leave  in  idleness  some 
of  the  young  American  volunteers  just  arriving  in 
Paris. 

The  Service  gladly  took  on  the  new  work  and 
made  a  prompt  appeal  to  the  men  on  hand.  Al- 
though they  had  come  over  to  drive  ambulances, 
most  of  them  appreciated  the  new  need  and  volun- 
teered for  the  transport  work.  A  training  camp 
was  at  once  established,  and  after  a  brief  but 
adequate  period  of  drill  in  handling  the  heavy 
vehicles  on  difficult  roads,  the  first  transport  sec- 
tion set  out  for  the  front,  carrying  the  first  Ameri- 
can flag  authorized  to  be  borne  in  this  war.  As 
it  happened,  most  of  the  forty  men  in  the  section 
were  from  Cornell,  and  at  the  head  was  a  Cornell 
man,  Edward  Tinkham,  who  had  already  won  his 
Cross  of  War  in  ambulance  work  by  **  his  untiring 
devotion  under  the  violent  fire  of  the  enemy." 
Conformably  to  its  new  function  the  Service 
changed  its  name  to  The  American  Field  Service 
and  sent  out  a  call  for  volunteers  in  this  country. 

Naturally  a  transfer  of  so  much  consequence 
could  not  be  accomplished  without  some  diffi- 
culties. On  the  part  of  the  volunteers  it  involved 
a  change  of  purpose  not  to  be  lightly  under- 


viii  Camion  Letters 

taken.  Men  who  had  gone  over  animated  by  zeal 
to  perform  humane  services  felt  that  to  drive 
munition  trucks  was  a  departure  from  their 
original  purpose.  Some  solved  the  problem  in  a 
plain,  soldierly  spirit,  saying  that  what  France 
wanted  was  clearly  the  thing  for  them  to  do. 
Others  held  strongly  to  their  original  idea. 
Moreover,  although  prompt  information  of  the 
new  arrangements  was  sent  to  all  officers  recruit- 
ing for  the  Service,  there  was  obvious  difficulty 
in  getting  to  all  the  oncoming  volunteers  an  ex- 
plicit understanding  of  the  new  situation.  A  fur- 
ther question  arose  in  respect  of  those  men  whose 
expenses  had  been  contributed  in  whole  or  in  part 
during  the  campaign  for  the  support  of  the  am- 
bulance service.  Some  of  these  men  obtained 
from  the  contributors  permission  to  transfer, 
some  went  on  with  the  ambulance  work,  and 
some,  accepting  war  conditions  as  the  supreme 
law,  transferred  to  the  new  branch,  assuming  that 
their  action  would  be  approved  at  home,  as  it 
almost  invariably  was. 

On  this  side  of  the  water  a  great  deal  of  con- 
fusion arose  through  misunderstandings,  slowly 
to  be  cleared  up  by  incessant  correspondence.    In 


Introduction  ix 


general  there  was  difficulty  in  realizing  that  the 
Service  had  no  control  over  the  necessities  of  war, 
and  that  it  was  trying  to  meet  an  emergency  prac- 
tically. To  have  answered  all  the  incoming 
questions  fully  and  personally  would  have  meant 
a  practical  abandonment  of  the  work  of  the  Serv- 
ice in  its  offices  and  a  commandeering  of  all  the 
office  staffs  for  typewriting.  Printed  material 
was  copiously  used,  however,  and  gradually  the 
situation  cleared  up. 

Meantime  a  new  trouble  appeared.  Of  late  the 
very  word  ambulance  had  been  a  thing  to  con- 
jure with.  The  desire  to  relieve  the  sufferings 
of  the  wounded  had  a  splendid  emotional  quality, 
and  now  at  the  very  time  when  ambulance  deliv- 
ery was  being  held  up  in  France,  American  gifts 
for  ambulances  poured  in.  It  was  a  hard,  un- 
gracious task  to  be  compelled  to  decline  or  post- 
pone the  acceptance  of  the  one  thing  that  had 
been  the  very  heart  of  the  Service.  It  was  a 
still  harder  task  to  persuade  many  of  the  generous 
donors  that  their  gifts  were  urgently  needed  to 
develop  the  new  branch  of  the  Service.  There  is 
at  first  thought  little  spiritual  appeal  in  a  trans- 
port truck,  little  call  for  skill  and  initiative  on 


Camion  Letters 


the  part  of  its  driver.  Yet  the  reverse  is  the 
case.  The  trucks  are  the  backbone  of  the  army 
and  the  driver  pilots  them  over  shell-swept  roads 
with  all  the  incident  risks  of  motor  troubles.  Had 
motor  car  owners  stopped  to  reflect  upon  what 
their  feelings  would  be  if  instead  of  changing  their 
tires  or  inspecting  their  spark  plugs  on  a  macad- 
amized American  road,  they  could  see  shells 
bursting  near  them  on  a  devastated  highway  of 
France,  they  would  never  ask,  as  some  did,  the 
cool  question  about  truck  driving  in  France,  "  Is 
this  the  work  for  a  patriotic  American  youth  with 
red  blood  in  his  veins?  " 

It  would  not  be  fair,  however,  to  give  the  im- 
pression that  taking  over  the  transport  work 
nullified  the  Service's  appeal  for  funds.  The 
friends  of  the  Service  maintained  their  firm  faith 
that  instead  of  doing  something  alien  to  its  origi- 
nal purpose  the  Service  was  only  reaching  out 
and  making  itself  even  more  useful  to  France. 
Indeed,  in  some  quarters  a  desire  to  contribute 
first  arose  with  the  knowledge  that  our  transport 
men  were  bearing  our  flag  as  combatants  and  not 
using  the  protection  of  the  Geneva  Red  Cross. 

But  still  the  fact  remained,  and  remains,  that 


Introduction  Xi 


the  transport  service  makes  far  less  an  appeal  to 
the  heart  than  to  the  brain,  and  that  the  heart 
has  to  be  touched  before  the  purse  strings  loosen. 

Yet  this  transport  work  of  the  army  is  an  abso- 
lutely indispensable  part  of  the  force  that  makes 
for  victory.  The  camions  carry  from  the  depots 
to  the  front  supplies  for  trench-making,  road- 
repairing,  and  bridge-building.  They  carry  equip- 
ment for  the  divisions,  and  food  for  the  men. 
They  carry  the  troops  themselves  when  reserves 
have  to  be  rushed  to  a  point  of  attack.  And 
they  carry  the  ammunition  on  which  depends  the 
barrage  fire  and  the  great  offensives.  "  An  army," 
said  Napoleon,  "  travels  on  its  belly."  This  vivid 
statement  of  the  imperative  value  of  the  commis- 
sary needs  now  to  be  supplemented  and  enlarged 
— even  without  the  imperial  imagery — to  include 
the  transportation  of  all  that  a  modern  army 
requires. 

The  camionneurs  who  carry  on  the  transport 
work  realize  the  responsibility  of  their  task,  and 
they  meet  its  dangers  as  true  soldiers.  The 
job  is  a  man's  job,  and  calls  for  courage  as  well 
as  skill.  It  calls  for  initiative  in  the  emergencies 
which  constantly  occur.    It  is  no  humdrum  task  of 


xii  Camion  Letters 

driving  heavy  trucks  in  a  slow  procession  along  a 
quiet  road.  There  is  nothing  humdrum  in  driving 
under  artillery  fire.  It  is,  as  the  men  at  the 
steering-wheels  know,  an  imperative  duty  and  a 
high  privilege,  and  there  is  no  good  quality  a 
man  possesses  which  does  not  find  free  play  in 
the  daily  task. 

The  men  in  the  transport  branch  of  the  Service 
have  of  course  written  many  letters  home,  and 
some  of  these  letters  have  been  passed  over  by 
their  recipients  to  the  American  headquarters. 
The  letters  were  written  without  thought  of  pub- 
lication, but  it  has  seemed  proper  to  make  out 
of  them  a  small  volume  whose  general  purpose 
is  to  make  known  the  character  and  activities 
of  the  transport  service.  The  letters  speak  for 
themselves, — frank,  boyish  recitals  of  daily 
routine  and  of  occasional  exciting  experience. 
Between  the  lines  of  the  letters  may  be  clearly 
read  a  heartening  thing, — the  growth  of  high- 
spirited  natures  out  of  boyhood  to  a  man's 
stature. 

Mabtin  W.  Sampson 
Cornell  University 


CAMION  LETTERS 


CAMION  LETTERS 


*A  Bord  le  "  Chicago  "  25th  April,  ipi^. 

We  are  safe  at  last  in  the  mouth  of  the  harbor 
of  the  Garonne.  Bordeaux  is  about  forty  miles 
up  the  river.  We  got  here  at  ten  this  morning, 
and  have  been  anchored  ever  since,  waiting  for 
the  high  tide.  We  hope  to  arrive  at  Bordeaux  at 
8  p.  m.,  and  at  Paris  some  time  tomorrow. 

It  is  a  great  relief  to  be  here  at  last,  with  land 
nearby.  Last  night  was  a  pretty  anxious  time. 
No  smoking  was  allowed  on  deck  after  dark,  and 
all  lights  were  put  out  early.  We  were  rather 
lucky  to  get  here  safely,  for  this  morning  one 
of  the  French  officers  told  us  that  two  ships  near 
us  had  been  sunk,  one  by  a  mine,  he  thought,  the 
other  by  a  submarine.  There  are  lots  of  other 
ships  in  the  harbor,  but  none  as  big  as  ours.  Most 
of  the  ships  are  waiting  to  go  through  to  the 
Mediterranean,  as  there  is  a  canal  right  across 
the  country. 

3 


Camion  Letters 


The  red  tape  has  started  again.  This  morning 
we  had  to  have  our  passports  examined  again  by 
some  men  who  came  on  board,  and  we  are  now 
waiting  for  customs  officers  to  come  and  inspect 
our  bags.  .   .  . 

The  inspectors  have  passed  safely,  and  we  are 
on  our  way  up  the  river.  Flat,  green  meadows 
and  towns  on  one  side,  and  very  low  white  cliffs  on 
the  other.  The  spring  seems  to  be  considerably 
ahead  of  the  American  spring.  We  can  see 
the  towns  and  the  people  very  plainly.  At  pres- 
ent we  are  stuck  in  the  mud,  and  do  not  seem  to 
be  able  to  get  off.  The  tide  is  coming  in,  how- 
ever, so  we  will  be  floating  again  shortly,  I  hope. 

By  the  way,  one  of  the  ships  sunk  was  a 
Swedish  steamer,  two  hours  ahead  of  us.  When 
we  got  the  news  by  the  wireless  the  Captain 
stopped  the  ship  and  lay  quiet  for  an  hour,  then 
went  on.  It  is  lucky  now  that  we  could  not  go 
any  faster,  or  we  might  have  met  the  submarine 
instead.  We  are  going  to  spend  the  night  in 
Bordeaux,  and  go  on  to  Paris  tomorrow. 


Camion  Letters 


II. 


Paris,  'April  2p,  igiy. 

We  are  now  staying  at  the  house  at  21  rue 
Raynouard.  It  is  a  very  old  stone  building  on  a 
little  street  in  Passy,  in  the  western  part  of  the 
city.  The  house  is  built  right  on  the  street,  but 
back  of  it  the  grounds  run  down  almost  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile,  as  far  as  a  road  on  the  bank  of  the 
Seine,  so  we  have  a  beautiful  view  of  the  river. 
All  the  completed  ambulances  are  kept  in  these 
grounds.  Of  course  the  grounds  are  not  kept 
up  carefully,  but  they  are  very  pretty  neverthe- 
less. They  feed  us  here  very  well — much  better 
than  at  college.  There  is  more  than  enough  of 
every  kind  of  food  except  sugar  and  butter,  and 
we  can  use  very  little  of  that.  When  you  buy 
food  here,  it  does  not  cost  any  more  than  in  the 
United  States,  and  some  things  are  less. 

Yesterday  I  went  down  town  to  buy  some 
things  such  as  duffle  bag,  uniform,  and  equipment, 
and  stopped  in  the  Madeleine.  This  afternoon 
I  am  going  to  see  Notre  Dame.     We  are  in  a 


Camion  Letters 


very  convenient  location  for  sight  seeing,  being 
only  a  couple  of  blocks  from  the  Metro.  The 
Eiffel  Tower  is  less  than  a  mile  off,  and  there  are 
a  lot  of  municipal  buildings  near  it.  However, 
no  one  is  allowed  to  go  near  it,  so  I  have  only 
seen  it  from  a  distance. 

I  am  getting  so  that  I  can  understand  French 
a  little  better,  but  that  is  not  very  well.  How- 
ever, I  do  not  have  any  trouble  getting  around, 
or  getting  what  I  want  to  eat  or  buy. 

I  do  not  know  when  we  will  leave  for  the  front, 
but  it  will  not  be  for  a  couple  of  weeks.  I  must 
stop,  as  I  want  this  letter  to  catch  the  "  Chicago  " 
mail. 


ni 


May  10,  ipi/. 
Lots  of  things  have  happened  since  I  wrote 
last.  I  am  writing  this  from  a  little  encampment 
of  three  tents  on  the  outskirts  of  a  little  French 
village,  near  enough  the  front  to  hear  the  boom 
of  the  guns  now  and  then.  Last  Saturday  (May 
5th)   the  head  of  the  Ambulance  Service,  Dr. 


Camion  Letters 


Andrew,  got  the  Cornell  men  together  and  told 
us  the  French  needed  men  to  drive  5-ton  Fierce- 
Arrow  trucks  (they  call  them  camions),  and 
wanted  us  to  be  the  first  section. 

The  work  consists  of  taking  supplies  to  the 
front  where  they  are  most  needed,  the  section  not 
being  assigned  to  any  permanent  sector,  but  being 
used  as  a  flying  squadron  to  go  where  the  need 
is  greatest.  They  gave  us  overnight  to  think  it 
over,  and  the  next  morning  forty-four  of  us 
volunteered  for  the  Service.  It  was  a  lightning 
decision,  but  I  think  I  chose  right.  In  the  first 
place,  our  ambulances  would  not  have  been  ready 
for  a  long  time,  and  we  would  have  had  to  waste 
most  of  the  time  waiting.  In  the  second  place, 
this  Service  is  no  more  dangerous  than  the  am- 
bulance, and  it  is  what  the  French  want  us  to  do 
at  present — they  say  they  are  up  against  it  for 
truck  drivers,  and  that  is  why  their  gains  have 
not  been  greater. 

Personally,  I  would  rather  drive  a  Ford  than 
a  truck,  but  I  think  it's  up  to  us  to  go  where  we 
can  help  most,  and  it  would  be  very  hard  to 
refuse  our  services  when  the  French  say  they 
need  us.    So  here  I  am. 


8  Camion  Letters 


We  have  very  good  food,  and  plenty  of  it.  The 
fact  is,  I  have  never  had  such  luxuries  in  camp- 
ing before.  There  is  a  little  brook  near  the 
camp,  and  we  have  fixed  a  trough  for  a  shower, 
so  we  can  take  a  bath  every  little  while.  My 
French  is  improving  all  the  time.  It  is  hard  to 
find  time  to  study  it,  but  of  course  we  have  to 
speak  it  quite  often,  although  not  as  much  as  I 
would  have  expected.  I  can  carry  on  a  simple 
conversation  unless  the  Frenchman  gets  excited, 
and  then  I  lose  track  of  what  he  is  saying  and 
can't  understand  a  thing. 

Our  training  is  just  about  over  now.  We  start 
in  on  our  regular  transport  work  early  next  week. 
I  don't  know  where  we  are  going,  and  couldn't 
tell  if  I  did.  I  can't  even  tell  where  our  present 
camp  is.  Our  address  now  is  simply  "  T.M.  2^, 
Par  B.C.M.,  Paris  "  but  that  changes  soon.  You 
see  we  are  a  new  organization,  and  I  do  not  know 
how  they  will  number  us. 

Every  cloudy  night  we  hear  the  big  guns  very 
clearly,  and  sometimes  see  the  "star  shells.'* 
Aeroplanes  buzz  around  all  the  time. 


Camion  Letters 


IV 


May  i8j  igiy. 

You  have  probably  heard  from  a  letter  I  wrote 
the  family  that  I  am  not  in  the  Ambulance  Serv- 
ice any  more.  A  new  organization  has  been 
formed — The  American  Transport  Service — the 
official  name  is  not  certain  yet.  We  drive  5-ton, 
Pierce-Arrow  trucks — the  best  in  the  world,  the 
French  say — with  "  supplies  "  for  the  French 
Armies.  We  are  shifted  from  one  army  to  an- 
other as  we  are  needed,  which  means  that  we  are 
always  at  the  point  of  the  greatest  activity.  We 
go  as  near,  often  nearer,  the  front  line  trenches 
than  the  ambulances,  have  harder  work,  and  do 
at  least  as  much  good.  At  any  rate,  it  was  what 
the  French  wanted  us  to  do,  and  I  think  it  was 
up  to  us  to  do  it,  unless  there  were  individual 
reasons  against  it.  Almost  all  the  Cornell  boys 
are  with  us,  all  but  about  eight  of  the  thirty- 
eight. 

At  present  we  are  having  a  wonderful  life  in 
camp  here.  An  ideal  location,  good  tents,  straw 
to  sleep  on,  good  food  and  lots  of  it,  and  a  little 


lO  Camion  Letters 

brook  near  by  to  wash  in.  The  only  drawback 
is  that  we  cannot  make  any  fires,  the  wood  is  so 
scarce,  and  there  may  be  other  reasons.  We  have 
been  having  some  rainy  weather,  and  things  get 
pretty  damp.  However,  every  one  seems  to  be 
keeping  well,  and  I  never  felt  better  in  my  life. 

The  people  are  always  very  much  interested 
when  they  hear  we  are  Americans.  They  ask 
us  all  sorts  of  questions — if  we  are  Roosevelt's 
army  was  one.  I  can  carry  on  a  very  simple, 
slow  conversation,  but  when  they  talk  fast  I  am 
lost.  I've  learned  a  lot  talking  with  the  truck 
drivers  that  went  with  us  to  show  us  how  the 
trucks  went.  One  man  had  been  a  diamond  cut- 
ter for  Tiffany  before  the  war,  and  most  of  the 
others  were  intelligent. 

On  some  of  our  practice  driving  trips  we  got  to 
the  old  lines  where  the  French  and  Germans 
faced  each  other  for  two  years.  In  one  place 
there  had  been  a  village,  but  no  one  would  have 
known  it.  The  ground  was  all  dug  up  with 
shell  holes,  and  trenches,  and  covered  with  wire 
entanglements.  We  went  through  the  German 
positions,  and  saw  their  underground  houses, 
electric  bells,  and  stoves  and  beds,  just  like  a  hotel. 


Camion  Letters  1 1 

On  another  trip  we  went  to  Pierrefonds,  and  had 
an  hour  to  spend  going  through  the  castle.  It 
was  completely  restored  a  few  years  ago,  and  is  a 
great  sight — all  thick  walls,  and  towers  and  a 
little  stone  staircase.  Most  of  the  rooms  had  sol- 
diers quartered  in  them,  and  straw  on  the  floor 
to  sleep  on.  There  are  soldiers  everywhere. 
Every  little  village  is  crowded  with  troops  just 
coming  from  the  trenches  for  a  rest,  or  going  to 
the  front. 

Every  night  we  can  hear  the  big  guns  very 
plainly,  especially  when  it  is  cloudy,  and  some- 
times we  see  strings  of  "  star  shells." 

It  is  almost  time  for  driving.    I  must  stop. 


y. 


May  i8,  191 7. 
Since  my  last  letter  I  have  been  busy  learning 
about  5-ton  Pierce  trucks,  and  I  now  know  quite 
a  lot  about  one.  Every  day  we  have  driving 
lessons  lasting  several  hours,  and  sometimes  we  go 
to  very  interesting  places.     The  other  day  we 


12  Camion  Letters 

went  to  a  place  where  the  Germans  and  French 
had  faced  each  other  for  two  years.  They 
showed  us  where  a  village  had  been,  but  it 
looked  exactly  like  the  country  round — shell  holes 
every  couple  of  yards,  trenches  everywhere,  and 
also  wire  entanglements.  We  had  to  be  very 
careful  where  we  stepped,  because  there  were 
lots  of  unexploded  shells  and  hand  grenades  lying 
around,  which  go  off  very  easily.  The  Germans 
had  been  living  in  dug-outs  in  a  hillside;  regular 
rooms  with  tin  ceilings,  stoves,  electric  bells,  and 
everything. 

Day  before  yesterday  we  started  at  2  p.m.  and 
went  to  Pierrefonds,  and  they  gave  us  an  hour 
to  go  through  the  castle.  It  certainly  is  a  won- 
derful place.  We  ate  our  food  outside  the  town, 
and  waited  till  dark  to  get  practice  in  night  driv- 
ing without  lights.  It  was  a  black,  cloudy  night, 
and  we  found  it  pretty  hard  to  keep  the  road  and 
our  place  in  the  convoy  (we  had  twelve  cars). 
It  had  been  raining,  and  some  of  the  cars  got 
stuck  in  the  mud  at  the  side  of  the  road,  and  we 
had  a  hard  time  pulling  them  out.  Then  another 
car  ran  into  us  from  behind  and  smashed  its  radi- 
ator.   It  was  not  the  driver's  fault,  though,  be- 


Camion  Letters  13 

cause  you  could  not  see  a  car  three  feet  off.  We 
had  to  tow  them  in,  and  finally  arrived  at  camp  at 
4  a.  m.,  a  little  tired.  They  don't  work  us  like 
that  all  the  time,  though  everybody  has  kept  well 
so  far.  I  never  felt  better  in  my  life,  and  I  think 
I  am  putting  on  a  good  deal  of  weight, 

Monday  we  had  a  big  banquet.  Ambassador 
Sharp  and  lots  of  high  French  officials  were  there 
and  made  us  speeches. 

I  spent  Tuesday  in  packing  up,  and  yesterday 
we  entrained  with  great  ceremony  and  came 
towards  here  as  far  as  the  trains  ran,  and  then 
in  trucks.  We  are  somewhere  near  Soissons. 
The  French  treat  us  like  princes.  They  give  us 
the  glad  hand  every  chance  they  get,  and  tell 
us  how  glad  they  are  we're  here.  The  food  is 
splendid.  Last  night  at  the  soldiers'  mess  we 
each  had  more  soup  out  of  a  big  iron  pot  than 
an  ordinary  family  of  eight  will  eat,  half  a  loaf  of 
bread  that  must  have  weighed  three  or  four 
pounds,  some  meat,  tea,  jam,  and  vin  rouge. 
The  food  is  even  better  than  at  rue  Raynouard. 
We  start  work  on  the  camions  this  afternoon. 


14  Camion  Letters 


VI 


June  II,  i^iy. 

I  RECEIVED  your  letters  a  few  days  ago,  and 
was  mighty  glad  to  hear  all  the  news  from  Amer- 
ica.   I'm  glad  things  are  moving  fast. 

We  have  been  having  some  exciting  times 
lately.  Last  week  we  were  on  the  go  most  of  the 
time  with  capacity  loads  of  75's  shells  or  air 
bombs  or  hand  grenades,  the  most  dangerous  of 
all  to  handle,  as  one  little  pin  sets  them  off. 

We  have  been  on  roads  when  they  were  being 
shelled  several  times.  When  a  shell  explodes  at  a 
distance  it  looks  at  first  exactly  like  a  tall,  black 
maple  tree,  then  it  becomes  just  a  mess  of  smoke 
and  dust.  Most  of  the  roads  are  in  pretty  good 
condition,  as  they  are  lined  with  piles  of  gravel, 
and  there  are  men  who  fill  up  the  shell  holes  im- 
mediately. The  other  day  we  were  going  along 
when  a  shell  destroyed  a  bridge  a  little  ahead  of 
us,  and  we  had  to  back  up  quite  a  way  to  take 
another  road.  I  had  been  the  first  car,  so  of 
course  I  was  the  last  when  we  backed.  Our 
camions  back  slowly  any  time,  and  then  they 


Camion  Letters  15 

hardly  seemed  to  move,  and  the  worst  of  it  was 
to  see  a  Frenchman  stick  his  head  out  of  a  trench 
every  now  and  then  to  see  what  was  going  on, 
and  then  duck  down  again.  Believe  me,  I  wanted 
to  join  them. 

We  had  a  great  treat  yesterday.  The  Captain 
let  us  take  a  camion  and  go  to  a  creek  a  few 
miles  off  for  a  swim.  It  was  an  ideal  place,  and 
we  swam  and  lay  around  in  the  sun  all  afternoon. 
It  has  been  hot  ever  since  we  got  here,  and  the 
dust  on  the  roads  often  makes  it  as  dark  as  night, 
except  that  it  is  white.  Of  course  we  wear  gog- 
gles, so  it  does  not  get  in  our  eyes,  but  there  is  a 
crust  over  every  part  of  us  when  we  get  back. 
The  work  is  not  so  very  hard,  especially  as  there 
are  two  men  on  a  camion  to  take  turns  driving. 

I  am  Tent  Police  today,  and  must  go  to  work. 


VII 

June  12, 191 7. 
I  HAVE  just  returned  from  a  short  morning 
run.     They  are  giving  us  a  good  rest  after  last 
week,  when  we  had  a  long  series  of  twelve  to 


1 6  Camion  Letters 


eighteen  hour  trips  with  only  a  few  hours  between. 
We  had  some  experiences  that  were  a  little  too 
exciting  to  be  pleasant. 

One  day  we  were  loaded  with  five  tons  of  trench 
bombs  and  were  getting  along  towards  the  front 
when  the  Germans  started  shelling  the  road  we 
were  on.  I  guess  they  saw  us  from  one  of  their 
"  Sausages  "  (observation  balloons).  I  was  driv- 
ing the  first  car.  Several  shells  fell  about  three 
hundred  yards  from  us,  and  then  they  dropped  one 
by  the  road  about  seventy  yards  ahead,  about  ten 
feet  from  a  man  working  on  the  road.  As  we 
went  by  he  was  lying  half  on  his  face,  with  his 
head  and  shoulders  half  blown  off,  sort  of  quiver- 
ing, although  of  course  he  was  dead.  We  had 
just  passed  him,  through  a  little  stream  of  blood, 
when  the  section  leader  came  along  in  his  car  with 
orders  to  back  up,  as  a  bridge  ahead  of  us  was 
destroyed. 

As  we  started  backing,  another  shell  landed 
about  twenty  yards  behind  us,  between  us  and  the 
next  camion  (a  hundred  yards).  A  shell  looks 
very  pretty  a  little  way  off,  it  looks  like  a  big 
tree,  but  when  it  gets  closer  than  a  hundred 
yards  it  looks  wicked,  and  sounds  so,  too,  and  five 


Camion  Letters  17 

tons  of  explosives  between  it  and  you  does  not 
make  it  any  pleasanter.  Well,  we  backed  up 
what  seemed  a  long  way  and  it  took  a  long  time, 
and  had  to  wait  for  all  the  others  to  get  on  the 
other  road.  It  was  funny  to  look  down  along  the 
road  and  see  all  the  Frenchmen  squatting  in  their 
trenches,  sticking  their  heads  out  every  now  and 
then  to  see  what  was  going  on,  but  it  about  dou- 
bled the  effect  of  the  shells  on  us. 

There  was  a  big  ditch  just  at  the  beginning 
of  the  small  road,  and  as  we  were  pulling  through 
it  the  engine  stopped,  although  we  were  in  low. 
It  seems  that  the  jarring  had  shaken  a  spark  plug 
wire  off.  Joe  Gray,  the  other  man  on  my  camion, 
jumped  out  and  cranked  the  engine  as  it  had 
never  been  cranked  before.  He  almost  twirled  the 
handle  off.  I  guess  cars  that  haven't  been  used 
for  years  would  have  started  from  the  spinning 
he  gave  it.  He  said  afterwards  that  he  could 
have  cranked  the  car  all  the  way  home  if  he  had 
had  to.  Anyway,  the  engine  went  and  we  pulled 
out  all  right,  and  went  along  hitting  on  only  three 
cylinders  till  we  found  a  sheltered  place  to  stop 
in  and  fix  it  up.  We  had  to  come  back  empty 
over  the  same  road  and  it  was  nervous  work 


1 8  Camion  Letters 

going  there,  but  we  were  not  shelled  again  that 
time. 

We  kick  sometimes  against  having  to  wear  our 
steel  helmets,  but  they  feel  just  about  right. at 
times  like  that,  although  I  don't  believe  they 
would  do  much  good,  if  any,  as  a  shell  fragment 
goes  through  boiler  plate  like  water  through  a 
sieve,  and  our  helmets  are  pretty  thin.  We  only 
had  a  very  few  shells  whistle  that  day,  as  the  ex- 
plosion came  so  soon  after  they  had  passed.  The 
nearest  one  was  probably  only  a  few  feet  over  our 
heads,  and  as  it  passed  we  felt  the  concussion  of 
the  air,  or  something  else,  perhaps,  that  felt  like 
a  light  electric  shock. 

Several  times  a  day  we  can  see  a  lot  of  little 
puffs  of  smoke  in  the  sky  where  airplanes  are 
being  fired  on  by  one  side  or  another.  Sometimes 
we  see  air  battles,  where  the  airplanes  go  past 
each  other  several  times,  and  try  to  get  over  or 
under  the  enemy,  and  sail  all  around  each  other. 
Some  of  the  fellows  saw  an  airplane  come  down  a 
few  days  ago,  but  I  haven't  seen  that  yet. 


Camion  Letters  19 


VIII 

June  24,  19 1 7. 

This  letter  must  be  short,  as  I  "  roll  "  in  a  few 
minutes,  but  I  will  write  again  as  soon  as  I  get  a 
little  time.  I  have  lots  of  your  letters — I'll  tell 
you  how  many  next  time  I  write,  as  I  haven't 
time  to  count  them  now.  I  hope  all  the  foolish- 
ness that  has  appeared  in  the  papers  about  this 
Service  has  not  started  you  worrying.  I  don't 
know  what  makes  them  print  such  things,  or 
where  they  get  all  their  ideas  from,  about  "  As 
the  30  Cornellians  appeared  in  the  trenches,  wav- 
ing the  Stars  and  Stripes,  the  veteran  soldiers 
gave  a  cheer."  We  don't  go  within  a  mile  of  the 
first  line  trenches,  and  the  only  danger  is  from 
stray  shells,  and  the  Germans  are  not  wasting 
many  these  days.  There  has  been  only  one  man 
killed  in  all  the  sectors  here  since  we  came,  and  he 
was  the  last  one  of  forty  men  going  into  a  dug- 
out. There  isn't  as  much  danger  as  there  is  in 
New  York  City. 

I  think  it's  fine  that  you  are  growing  so  many 
things  to  eat.    It  certainly  will  help.    Personally, 


20  Camion  Letters 

I  haven't  seen  any  board  shortage.  We  have  all 
the  food,  splendidly  cooked,  we  can  eat,  and  in 
this  camp  good  water  to  drink,  which  is  much 
better  than  the  miserable  "  pinard  "  they  give  us. 
It  is  a  kind  of  red  wine — I  think  a  kind  of 
claret — worse  than  anything  you  can  buy  in  the 
U.  S.  At  least  that  is  what  I  gather  from  our 
connoisseurs. 

This  camp  is  very  nice.  Besides  plenty  of  good 
water,  we  have  long  wooden  barracks  to  sleep  in, 
which  we  have  made  water-tight  with  rolls  of  tar 
paper.  It's  near  a  little  town  where  we  go  some- 
times, and  where  we  can  buy  fresh  bread,  which  is 
a  great  treat  after  the  army  bread,  which  is 
baked  somewhere  in  the  south  of  France,  and 
would  make  good,  solid,  car-wheels  by  the  time 
we  get  it.  We  never  see  any  butter,  but  there  is 
lots  of  "  confiture  "  to  eat  on  it. 

By  the  way,  did  you  get  some  photos  of  the 
"  Chicago  "  I  sent  you  some  time  ago?  I  would 
like  to  know,  because  there  is  a  rumor  that  photos 
cannot  be  sent  through  the  mails,  and  so  I  have  not 
sent  any  more.  If  you  got  them  safely,  I  have 
lots  I  can  send.  I  print  and  develop  my  own  pic- 
tures.   Bought  an  outfit  in  Paris  50-50  with  an- 


Camion  Letters  21 

other  fellow,  and  we  have  been  doing  a  rushing 
business  whenever  we  have  a  little  time  off. 
There  has  been  no  excitement  for  a  long  time — 
haven't  even  heard  an  arrivee  shell  for  a  long 
time,  but  we  hear  plenty  of  "  departs,"  as  there 
are  now  several  batteries  not  far  from  camp. 

I  did  not  have  time  to  finish  this  letter  last 
evening  before  "  rolling,"  so  I  am  finishing  it  this 
morning  (June  25).  The  trip  was  not  as  long  as 
we  expected  it  would  be,  as  the  place  we  were 
going  to  was  destroyed  before  we  got  there,  so  we 
were  saved  about  two  miles,  which  means  some- 
thing to  us.  We  do  all  our  driving  without  lights, 
but  somehow  it  never  seems  to  get  dark.  There 
has  seldom  been  a  night  when  the  road  was  not 
perfectly  plain  before  us,  and  usually  the  traffic 
is  easily  seen.  At  any  rate  the  other  traffic  on 
the  road  does  not  endanger  us,  as  a  steam  roller 
or  a  big  gun  are  about  the  only  things  on  the  road 
heavier  than  we  are.  It's  mighty  interesting 
work,  too,  creeping  along  the  roads  with  batteries 
of  big  guns  and  little  soixante-quinzcs  flashing 
every  few  minutes  near  us,  and  seeing  the  shrap- 
nel burst  with  a  dull  red  flash  over  the  trenches, 
and,  near  the  front,  seeing  the  sky  and  ground  lit 


22  Camion  Letters 

^— ■— — — — »^— »— ^-^  — — ■^■^—j — — — 

up  for  miles  and  miles  around  by  the  long  strings 
of  star  shells  and  rockets  sent  up  by  both  the 
French  and  the  Germans.  Sometimes  there  are 
dozens  of  searchlights  sweeping  over  the  sky 
when  an  airplane  motor  is  heard,  and  when  they 
find  it,  if  they  do,  you  can  hear  the  hammering 
of  machine  guns  shooting  at  it — it  sounds  ex- 
actly like  the  compressed  air  riveting  on  a  steel 
building. 

I  have  got  to  go  and  change  a  tire  on  my  car 
v^^hich  was  torn  last  night.  Will  write  again 
soon. 

By  the  way,  will  you  send  me  a  mouth-organ ! 
Just  an  ordinary  one.  I  have  tried  to  buy  one 
here,  but  they  don't  have  them.  Also,  if  it  isn't 
too  much  trouble,  I  would  like  a  Sunday  paper 
sent  me  now  and  then. 


IX^ 


July  2,  19 17. 
At  last  the  weather  and  transport  service  are 
giving  me  time  to  write  again.     About  a  week 
ago  I  got  a  most  dee-licious  box  of  nut  fudge 


Camion  Letters  23 

you  sent  me.  Thank  you  ever  so  much  for  it — r 
the  first  real  candy  we  have  had  since  April  14. 
Well,  when  I  got  up  this  morning  some  of  the 
boys  came  and  told  me  there  were  a  couple  of 
packages  for  me,  and  went  with  me  to  help 
open  them,  and  we  found  it  was,  or  they  were, 
two  big  boxes  of  fudge,  and  a  box  of  guava 
jelly,  for  which  I  and  the  boys  thank  you  again 
very  gratefully.  It's  the  only  good  American 
candy  that's  been  in  camp,  and  it  certainly  is  a 
treat. 

Life  has  not  been  at  all  exciting  lately.  We 
seldom  get  sent  to  dangerous  places  in  the  day- 
time— not  because  they  don't  want  us  to  get  shot, 
but  the  camions  have  some  value,  and  usually  we 
would  have  to  unload  them  near  some  General's 
domicile,  and  that  might  get  hit  instead  of  us. 
So,  as  a  general  rule,  we  load  up  in  the  afternoon 
and  then  go  and  wait  behind  some  hill  or  in  some 
wood  where  the  Boche  sausages  can't  see  us,  until 
dark,  and  then  go  to  the  depot  and  unload.  It 
rained  steadily  for  the  last  few  nights,  and  so  has 
been  very  dark.  I  don't  know  why  we  haven't 
been  stuck  in  the  mud, — most  of  the  cars  have, — 
but  we  have  had  the  luck  to  escape  that,  although 


24'  Camion  Letters 

I  guess  we've  been  shelled  more  than  any  other  of 
our  cars. 

I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  in  this  work 
I  am  not  running  any  more  danger  than  I  am  in 
going  to  college — perhaps  not  as  much.  All  the 
shells  the  Germans  shoot  at  the  roads  to  destroy 
them  are,  of  course,  high  explosive  shells,  and  I 
have  lost  all  respect  for  them.  They  make  a  big 
noise,  and  a  big  hole  in  the  ground,  and  a  high 
column  of  dirt,  but  they  won't  kill  you  unless  you 
are  right  next  to  one.  Of  course,  the  shrapnel 
shells  are  pretty  mean — they  explode  in  the  air 
and  scatter,  but  they  are  no  good  for  destroying 
roads  and  bridges,  and  so  we  see  very  few  of  them. 
We  were  in  a  village  yesterday  that  the  Germans 
had  occupied  for  two  and  a  half  years,  and  only 
left  about  April  15th.  When  they  left  they  blew 
up  all  the  houses  and  cut  down  all  the  fruit  trees 
they  had  time  to,  and  cut  a  ring  of  bark  off  around 
the  trunks  of  the  others.  Sometimes  they  bored 
a  hole  in  a  tree  to  put  some  powder  in,  and  blew 
it  up.  The  country  is  a  wreck  now,  and  it  will 
be  a  desert  next  year,  as  far  as  trees  go. 

A  few  days  ago  we  saw  an  exciting  air  battle 
between  one  of  our   fellows  in  the  Lafayette 


Camion  Letters  25 

Esquadrille  and  seven  Bodies.  We  were  playing 
a  game  of  baseball  after  supper  when  we  saw  six 
"  spads  "  (French)  fly  over  us.  One  was  hav- 
ing engine  trouble,  and  had  to  drop  behind  the 
others.  A  little  later  we  saw  a  whole  swarm  of 
planes  in  the  distance,  and  heard  their  machine- 
guns,  and  saw  one  machine  come  down.  The 
day  after  one  of  the  fellows  went  over  to  a  big 
hospital  near  us,  and  talked  with  the  fellow, 
named  Hall,  who  had  been  brought  down.  He 
said  he  had  dropped  way  behind  his  party,  and  had 
then  mistaken  the  seven  German  planes  for  theirs. 
Of  course,  when  he  got  near  them  they  attacked 
him,  and  he  was  shot  through  the  arm  and  the 
lung.  He  lost  consciousness  and  fell,  but  came 
to  about  a  hundred  feet  above  the  ground,  in 
time  to  turn  his  machine.  Then  he  fainted  again, 
and  when  he  came  to  he  was  in  the  hospital. 
Sounds  like  a  fairy  story,  doesn't  it?  Next  day 
all  the  papers  said  he  had  attacked  the  seven 
Germans. 

I  can't  tell  if  I  have  received  all  your  letters, 
but  I  have  received  several  very  interesting  ones. 
It's  too  bad  Bill  couldn't  get  into  the  army.  He 
must  be  awfully  disappointed.    I  wonder  if  I  could 


26  Camion  Letters 


pass  the  examination — my  eyes  are  not  very  good. 
Lots  of  the  older  men  in  this  Service  are  here 
because  they  are  not  able  to  join  the  army,  and 
want  to  do  something. 


X 


July  14,  1917. 

The  maple  sugar  you  sent  me  came  safely  last 
night,  and  it  was  the  greatest  treat  I  have  had 
for  weeks  and  weeks.  It  was  fresh  and  in  fine 
condition.  I  gave  some  to  some  of  my  poilu 
friends,  and  they  didn't  seem  to  know  exactly 
what  to  make  of  it.  The  only  thing  they  would 
say  was  that  it  was  very  sweet.  I  don't  have 
to  pay  duty  on  anything  I  get — even  tobacco 
seems  to  come  through  free. 

July  loth  I  got  your  letter  written  June  21st. 
We  were  making  a  night  trip,  and  were  waiting 
to  be  unloaded  when  the  staff  car  brought  out  the 
mail  to  us.  I  couldn't  see  very  well  by  the  star 
shells,  so  I  took  a  lamp  off  the  car  and  went  down 
into  a  nearby  dug-out.  It  was  the  first  time  the 
lamp  had  ever  been  lit,  but  it  burned  all  right  and 


Camion  Letters  Tj 

I  had  just  time  to  read  my  letters  before  we  had 
orders  to  go  on. 

Everything  is  going  on  as  usual.  Nobody  in 
the  section  has  been  hurt  or  has  been  sick  for 
more  than  a  couple  of  days  at  a  time.  The  only 
trouble  is  that  there  does  not  seem  to  be  nearly 
enough  work  for  us  to  do. 

Our  address  has  changed  again — the  latest  is 
at  the  head  of  this  letter,  but  any  of  the  former 
ones  will  reach  us  all  right.     I  am  afraid  that 

one  of  the  boxes  of  fudge  that sent  has  been 

lost — I  have  received  three  in  all.  Along  with 
your  maple  sugar  I  got  a  big  box  of  chocolate 
from .  At  present,  I  have  probably  the  big- 
gest reputation  for  packages  in  camp.  As  soon  as 
one  comes  in  for  me,  fellows  come  from  both 
barracks  to  tell  me  about  it  and  help  me  carry 
them  up  to  my  bunk. 

The  hot  weather  seems  to  be  over,  and  it  has 
been  very  cold  and  rainy  for  the  last  few  days. 
I  like  it  better  than  the  hot  weather,  because  I 
have  a  rubber  shirt  and  a  sheepskin  coat,  and  can 
keep  perfectly  warm  and  dry. 

I  have  a  lot  of  cleaning  and  greasing  to  do  to 
my  car,  so  I  must  stop. 


28  Camion  Letters 

XI 

July  22,  19 17. 

I  AM  writing  on  a  desk  I  have  just  made  out  of 
a  shell-box,  which  I  saved  from  a  load  of 
"  empties "  we  were  carrying  back  from  the 
front.  They  are  very  useful  to  keep  things  in, 
because  they  are  very  well  made,  with  big  iron 
hinges.  Most  of  the  "  75  "  cases  have  "  U.  S.  3  " 
on  them — meaning  United  States  3-inch,  so  I 
guess  we  must  be  sending  over  lots  of  the  shells 
we  use  in  our  3-inch  guns. 

There  is  not  anything  new  about  the  work  to 
say.  We  still  gti  splendid  food  and  not  too  much 
work  to  do.  The  section  has  been  very  quiet 
lately,  and  I've  almost  forgotten  what  a  shell 
sounds  like.  The  only  excitement  has  been  two 
or  three  air  raids  which  the  Germans  have  made 
on  this  district.  A  few  nights  ago  we  were 
waked  up  by  an  explosion  and  a  heavy  shock  that 
felt  like  an  earthquake,  then  there  was  another 
nearer  explosion,  and  another  nearer  still.  We 
were  pretty  well  scared  then,  and  were  expecting 
the  next  one  on  top  of  us,  but  there  were  no 
more. 


Camion  Letters  29 

Last  Sunday  some  fellows  and  I  went  to 
Church  at  a  beautiful  thirteenth  century  cathedral 
on  top  of  a  little  hill.  There  was  an  architect 
with  us  and  he  told  us  that  originally  the  cathe- 
dral had  been  about  three  times  as  big  as  it  is 
now,  with  a  big  spire  in  the  middle,  but,  even  in  its 
present  condition,  it  is  very  impressive.  The  in- 
side is  all  white-washed  stone,  with  few  decora- 
tions, and  the  outside  walls  are  covered  with 
grass  and  small  shrubs,  wherever  they  can  find  a 
crevice  to  grow  in.  The  congregation  was  made 
up  of  women  and  children  mostly — all  dressed  up 
in  their  Sunday  clothes,  and  some  wounded 
soldiers. 

I  am  sending  some  photos  in  this  letter,  and  I 
hope  they  get  through.  One  is  of  the  celebration 
we  had  the  4th  of  July.  I  told  about  it  in  an- 
other letter.  You  can  see  the  car  sliding  down 
the  narrow  gauge  track.  The  trick  is  to  stick  the 
pole  through  a  hole  in  a  board  nailed  below  the 
pail  of  water.  If  you  don't  do  it,  the  pail  tips 
over  on  you,  as  in  the  picture.  The  picture  of  the 
French  village  is  very  true  to  life — just  big  piles 
of  stones  on  both  sides  of  the  road,  with  a  few 
walls  standing.    There  are  lots  of  dug-outs  that 


30  Camion  Letters 

you  can't  see  underneath  these  ruins.  The  pic- 
ture of  the  convoy  was  taken  when  we  stopped 
once  along  the  road.  My  car  is  not  in  it,  but  all 
the  cars  are  almost  the  same.  The  one  of  the 
shell  exploding  in  the  distance  was  taken  a 
long  time  ago,  also  in  a  "  village."  You  can 
see  the  barbed  wire  chevaux  de  frises  near  the 
camera. 

Arrangements  about  our  "  permissions  "  have 

changed  again.    I  cannot  visit ,  because  we 

are  not  allowed  to  leave  France,  I  think  I  will 
take  a  trip  to  the  Swiss  border — near  Lake 
Geneva.  They  say  living  there  is  very  cheap,  and 
transportation  is  free,  so  it  is  a  good  chance  to  see 
the  Alps  and  to  compare  Lake  Geneva  and  Lake 
George  for  myself.  By  the  time  you  get  this 
letter  I  will  probably  be  back  working  again,  as 
my  permission  begins  August  2nd.  I  am  rather 
disappointed  at  not  being  able  to  go  to  London, 
but  this  certainly  is  a  wonderful  opportunity  to 
see  some  beautiful  places  without  spending  much 
money. 

Another  box  of  fudge  came  night  before  last. 
It  had  been  packed  in  moth  balls  in  the  Post 
Office,  and  it  was  pretty  strong  till  I  had  aired  it 


Camion  Letters  31 

for  a  couple  of  days,  then  it  tasted  natural  and 
very  good. 

The  supper  gong  is  ringing,  so  I  must  stop. 


XII 


-?/  rue  Raynouard,  Paris,  May  6,  1Q17. 

The  present  prospect  is  that  I  will  soon  leave 
Paris,  and  as  it  may  not  be  so  easy  to  write  let- 
ters later  on,  I  want  to  outline  the  trend  of  events 
up  to  now. 

It  isn't  at  all  interesting  to  read,  although  we 
enjoyed  it  immensely.  After  the  incident  with 
the  submarine  we  landed  at  Bordeaux,  where  we 
spent  the  day.  Rode  to  Paris  in  a  funny  train  by 
night.  We've  been  in  Paris  for  a  few  days  now 
and  have  spent  the  time  taking  care  of  military 
and  other  red  tape,  taking  French  lessons  and 
Ford  lessons  and  seeing  Paris,  which  last  is  no 
small  nor  unpleasant  job.  This  certainly  is  a 
regular  city. 

Now  comes  an  explanation  which  I  shall  not 
be  able  to  make  as  clear  as  I  would  wish. 

In  the  last  big  battle  the  French  experienced 


32  Camion  Letters 

very  great  difficulty  in  transporting  munitions. 
There  was  a  deficit  of  men  to  drive  the  trucks,  so 
serious  that  the  army  staff  has  requested  that  the 
American  Field  Ambulance  Service  convert  men 
from  ambulance  to  heavy  transport  drivers.  They 
say  that  they  need  the  latter  much  more  at  the 
present  time. 

The  officials  have  asked  that  a  unit  of  sixty 
men  be  organized  at  once.  Andrew,  head  of  our 
Field  Ambulance  Service  in  France,  has  put  the 
subject  before  the  Cornell  men  now  in  Paris,  ask- 
ing that  they  form  the  nucleus  of  the  first  Ameri- 
can unit  of  this  sort. 

Tinkham,  who  raised  the  first  Cornell  ambu- 
lance unit,  is  going  to  convert  the  unit  for  which 
he  worked  so  hard  into  this  new  transport  service. 
Nearly  every  Cornell  man  is  going  into  it.  You 
can  see  that  I'm  confronted  with  questions.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  our  standing  as  Americans 
and  American  Ambulance  Field  Service  men  re- 
mains exactly  the  same,  there  is  a  change  in  the 
nature  of  the  Service.  France  asks  us  to  enter 
the  new  Service.  It  promises  harder  work  and 
less  excitement,  farther  from  the  front.  It  would 
be  a  great  relief  to  me  if  I  could  personally  explain 


Camion  Letters  33 

the  proposed  change  to  the  men  who  gave  me 
money  to  come  over  here. 

But  I  must  use  my  own  judgment.  I  beheve 
that  you  and  the  other  Cornell  men  at  home  would 
endorse  my  action  in  getting  into  the  transport 
service.  I  place  great  reliance  on  Tinkham's 
judgment.  .    .    . 

This  is  the  second  chapter  of  this  letter,  due  to 
the  fact  that  I've  been  awaiting  events.  They 
have  occurred  and  the  events  of  the  near  future 
are  clear  enough  to  proceed.  After  the  best  of 
my  judgment  and  that  of  those  whom  I  feel  are 
best  fitted  to  give  advice,  I  have  decided  to  enter 
the  new  transport  section.  We  will  be  the  first 
armed  Americans  to  enter  the  "  Great  War  "  with 
the  exception  of  some  aviators.  Tomorrow 
morning  at  9,30  we  leave  Paris  for  barracks  not  a 
great  many  miles  from  Paris.  There  we  will 
remain  for  two  weeks  probably,  learning  the 
Pierce-Arrow  cars,  which  will  be  used  exclusively. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  in  case  you  do  not  favor 
my  action,  that  you  will  refrain  from  too  severe 
a  criticism  until  I  can  get  home  and  explain  com- 
prehensively the  turn  which  may  mean  so  much 
to  me.     Had  I  followed  my  personal  desires  I 


34  Camion  Letters 

would  have  refused  to  leave  the  ambulance  serv- 
ice. But  after  my  experience  with  the  submarine 
and  learning  practically  at  first  hand  the  enemy 
that  not  only  France,  but  the  United  States,  has  to 
deal  with,  and  seeing  the  tremendous  sacrifice 
going  on  about  me  without  a  sign  of  quailing,  I 
feel  that  any  sacrifice  of  personal  desires  that  I 
make  is  infinitely  trivial.  If  France  is  so  hard 
put  as  to  make,  through  some  of  her  highest 
officials,  a  request  that  a  part  of  her  Ambulance 
Service  be  turned  over  into  this  new  Service, — 
What  is  a  man  to  think  ? 

This  letter  certainly  lacks  the  valuable  quality 
of  brevity.  With  a  request  that  you  write  me 
and  a  promise  to  keep  you  posted  as  far  as  rea- 
sonable, though  not  an  ambulance  driver  I  am. 

Yours  sincerely 


XIII 

A  WHOLE  lot  has  happened,  too  much  to  ac- 
count for  in  detail,  since  I  last  wrote.  Forty- 
two  of  us,  mostly  Cornell  boys,  left  Paris  on  the 
morning  of  May  8.    Movies  and  quite  a  celebra- 


Camion  Letters  35 

tion  accompanied  the  departure.  In  the  middle  of 
the  afternoon  we  had  arrived  at  the  nearest  point 
the  trains  were  able  to  reach  to  Soissons  in  the 
Brie  region.  We  were  trucked  to  a  small  town 
in  a  hilly  wooded  country.  A  mile  or  so  out  we 
made  a  camp,  which  was  changed  to  a  permanent 
position  in  a  large  and  beautiful  open  beech  wood. 

We  have  three  nice  tents,  fourteen  men  to  a 
tent,  a  French  army  cooking  outfit  and  two 
cooks  who  provide  plain,  well  cooked  food  in 
more  than  sufficient  quantity. 

There  is  a  splendid  man,  a  French  Lieutenant, 
in  charge.  He  and  an  assistant  give  us  lectures 
on  the  Pierce-Arrow  cars,  road  and  army  regula- 
tions, etc.  There  are  eighteen  trucks  (one  sec- 
tion) back  from  the  front  to  train  us  in  running 
them.  We  are  getting  along  well  and  seeing  a  lot 
of  trenches  and  other  interesting  scenery. 

When  our  section  has  been  trained  we  will  go 
on  duty  as  a  reserve,  to  supply  the  drivers  where 
extra  supplies  are  needed,  the  shifts  making  it 
possible  for  us  to  see  greatly  more  of  the  war  and 
country. 

I  have  just  asked  the  Lieutenant  and  he  says  it 
is  all  right  to  say  that  we  are  in  the  Brie  district 


36  Camion  Letters 

at  present,  near  Soissons.  Soissons  is  now  being 
shelled  to  prevent  entrance  of  trains. 

The  actual  war  sights  we  have  seen  are  I  sup- 
pose only  preliminaries.  We  hear  the  big  guns, 
see  as  many  as  a  dozen  or  fifteen  airplanes  in  the 
air  at  once  and  at  night  there  are  the  stray  shells 
from  anti-aircraft  guns  and  the  strings  of  lumi- 
nous rockets.  There  is  a  hand  grenade  practice 
point  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  from  the  camp 
and  we  were  shown  the  mechanism  and  throw- 
ing, all  of  which  were  mighty  interesting. 

Yesterday  we  went  to  what  was  the  first  line 
less  than  two  months  ago.  The  Germans  were 
driven  out  by  a  big  French  drive  from  a  position 
which  they  had  held  for  two  years.  The  place 
was  a  sure  enough  sight,  concreted,  glazed,  deco- 
rated, curiosities  and  salvage  to  satisfy  the  most 
fanatical.  The  place  was  full  of  traps,  wires  with 
bombs  hanging  in  concealed  places,  etc.  We 
hardly  dared  touch  anything. 

A  town  back  of  the  trenches  was  nearly 
grounded,  the  whole  country  round  indescribable 
in  its  ruin  of  iron,  enormous  shell  holes,  barb 
wire,  remains  of  all  kinds  of  shells  and  mecha- 
nisms of  war. 


Camion  Letters  37 

If  I  respected  the  French  before  I  came  over 
here,  that  respect  is  now  multiplied  many  times. 
Outside  of  their  treating  us  in  the  very  best  way 
possible,  the  way  they  seem  to  be  running  the 
war  is  certainly  wonderful.  If  anything  goes 
wrong,  or  any  personal  pleasures  have  to  be 
turned  into  hardships,  it's  "  Pour  La  Guerre/'  and 
is  all  right.  They  all  seem  to  be  well  aware  that 
this  is  a  war  of  years,  not  months. 

The  morning  after  we  had  set  up  camp  here, 
a  band  was  brought  from  the  front,  a  Captain  and 
a  bunch  of  men  gave  us  a  welcome,  a  speech,  and 
some  right  good  music.  All  of  which  indicates 
the  value  and  rating  that  France  puts  on  the  new 
blood  that  she  needs  more  than  any  one  in 
America  can  realize. 

We  have  been  out  nearly  all  day  today,  learn- 
ing how  to  turn  the  trucks  around  under  diffi- 
culties. I  should  think  that  it  would  cost  the 
French  Government  about  $100  apiece  to  train  us. 

It  is  now  5  o'clock  and  the  big  guns  at  the 
front  are  going  at  it  with  unusual  vigor. 


38  Camion  Letters 


XIV. 

Just  before  our  arrival  in  Paris,  the  American 
Ambulance  Field  Service  was  changed  into  the 
American  Field  Service  and  the  organization 
much  enlarged.  Under  the  existing  conditions, 
many  of  us  had  to  enter  other  fields  of  service. 
We  came  to  help  France  and  France  needed  men 
for  transport  service.  It  was  our  duty  to  join 
where  needed  and  this  we  did.  Six  of  the  W.  U. 
.Unit  are  with  me;  the  rest  are  in  Paris  and  ex- 
pect to  drive  ambulances  there — to  and  from  the 
railway  stations.  I  hated  very  much  to  break  up 
the  unit,  but  I  could  not  have  done  otherwise 
and  I  have  a  clear  conscience.  America  is  at 
war  and  boys  of  my  standing  should  not  be  doing 
only  the  Ambulance  work.  Please  do  not  criti- 
cise my  action — it  would  be  unfair  to  me,  for  no 
one  in  America  has  the  knowledge  that  he  must 
have  before  making  any  conclusions. — It  isn't 
what  we  came  to  do,  but  it  is  the  thing  to  do. — 
America  is  absurdly  ignorant  of  the  part  she  is 
expected  to  play  in  this  great  war.  It  is  a  tre- 
mendous and  grim  thing,  and  the  sooner  America 


Camion  Letters  39 

realizes  it,  the  better.  France  has  fought  a  won- 
derful fight  and  it  is  now  time  for  a  fresh  entry 
into  the  conflict. 


XV, 


June  14,  1917. 
The  section  has  just  finished  loading  the  cars 
at  one  of  the  big  depots  and  is  on  the  road  toward 
the  lines.  It  is  early  in  the  afternoon  and  they 
can  only  go  to  a  certain  point  along  the  road  and 
wait  there  until  nightfall  before  continuing  to  the 
more  advanced  posts.  The  load  consists  of  vari- 
ous trench  materials,  walks,  poles,  wire,  screens, 
and  so  on.  It  is  not  our  task  to  carry  such  things, 
but  during  slack  intervals  the  reserves  do  not 
always  carry  ammunition.  We  arrived  three 
weeks  ago,  just  at  the  tail  end  of  an  offensive,  and 
work  has  been  diminishing  ever  since.  The  fel- 
lows get  impatient  at  being  idle  any  of  the  time — 
they  haven't  learned  that  this  is  how  war  goes. 
Over  three  weeks  since  we  left  the  training  school 
and  began  regular  service.  Before  six  months  are 
up  the  fellows  will  have  accomplished  a  lot  of  real 


40  Camion  Letters 

hard  physical  work.  Much  more,  I  think,  than 
in  the  Ambulance  section.  But  the  work  isn't 
nearly  so  appealing,  so  it  would  take  more  courage 
to  see  it  through.  We  go  about  as  far  up  as  the 
ambulances  and  take  the  same  risks — in  fact,  on 
every  trip  some  of  the  cars  have  run  through 
shells,  but  there  isn't  the  same  opportunity  for 
individual  action.  Convois  of  eight,  twelve,  six- 
teen cars  always  together. 

I  knew  from  the  start  that  we  had  an  excep- 
tionally good  set  of  men,  and  they  are  turning  out 
that  in  every  respect.     The  French  Captain  has 

remarked  about  it  several  times.    and 

are  excellent  Sergeants,  and and are 

equally  good  Corporals.    and are  next 

in  line  for  non-com.  officers.  Already  four  of  the 
men  of  the  original  section  have  been  made  leaders 
of  new  sections — they  were  not  Cornell  men,  how- 
ever. It  is  my  aim  to  have  this  section  the  well 
from  which  the  leaders  for  the  new  sections  will 
be  drawn.  This  T.  M.  Service  should  increase 
very  fast.  I  expect  by  the  end  of  the  summer 
there  will  be  a  thousand  men  enrolled.  Of  course, 
the  type  of  fellows  may  have  to  change  because  of 
conscription,  but  it  will  be  just  the  place  for  men 


Camion  Letters  41 

over  thirty  who  wish  to  serve  in  some  active 
manner. 

I  wish  the  people  in  America  could  realize  how 
much  France  needs  men  and  supplies.  Not  only 
fighting  men,  but  organizers  and  business  heads. 
At  times  there  are  incidents  that  give  reasons,  per- 
haps, why  the  war  has  lasted  so  long. 

I  was  delighted  to  receive  your  letter  telling  of 
the  financial  success  of  your  campaign  for  money 
for  the  Service. 


XVI 

July  2nd,  19 1 7. 
Although  yesterday  was  Sunday  no  one 
would  have  known  it  as  far  as  we  were  concerned. 
In  the  morning  a  mist  which  was  the  end  of  a 
two  days'  rain  kept  every  one  who  had  not  work 
to  do  indoors  where  we  lay  around  and  rested,  as 
the  orders  were  out  that  we  were  to  go  out  that 
night.  Besides  I  had  several  things  to  do,  such  as 
laying  walks,  etc.,  so  that  the  fellows  could  get 
around  camp  without  being  swallowed  up  in  the 
mud.     For  two  days'  rain  makes  this  soil  im- 


42  Camion  Letters 

passable  for  human  or  any  other  travel.  The 
roads,  however,  are  good,  for  they  have  a  nice 
deep  rock  bottom,  and  as  long  as  one  stays  there 
everything  runs  along  O.  K.  But  when  a  5-ton 
truck  gets  stuck  in  the  mud  there's  the  deuce 
to  pay  and  it  takes  a  pretty  good  deal  of  work  to 
get  her  out  again.  So  far  we  have  been  lucky  and 
with  careful  driving  have  avoided  lots  of  trouble. 
Now  let  me  tell  you  why  I  feel  like  a  prince 
today.  To  begin  with  four  of  the  fellows  left  for 
Meaux,  where  they  are  training  as  officers  and 
that  left  some  vacancies.    Before  this  time  I  had 

been  a  second  driver  to on  the  second  car 

(we  call  the  job  "Grease  Cup  Boy").  Well, 
what  do  you  think,  I  became  the  proud  possessor 
of  a  5-ton  truck  myself,  with  a  grease  cup  boy 
under  me  and  lots  of  driving.  This  job  was  not 
to  last  long.  I  only  took  one  trip  with  my  car 
and  was  hardly  on  to  its  quaint  tricks  when  our 
acting  Chief  called  me  to  the  Bureau  and  said 

that  one  of  the  Corporals  had  been  called  to 

and  that  I  was  to  be  a  Corporal  from  henceforth. 
Now  maybe  this  doesn't  mean  much,  but  to  me  it 
means  a  lot.  Our  Service  is  young  and  new  sec- 
tions are  going  out  every  day.    Already  nine  of 


Camion  Letters  43 

our  men  have  gone  to  Meaux;  when  they  com- 
plete their  training  they  take  out  their  own  sec- 
tions. I'm  now  in  direct  line  to  be  sent  to  Meaux  ; 
maybe  it  will  be  in  six  weeks,  maybe  not  for  ten, 
but  anyway  eventually  I  think  I  shall  have  a 
chance  to  go  and  then  I  shall  be  a  First  Lieu- 
tenant. So  although  I  don't  want  to  raise  your 
hopes  too  high  I  want  you  to  know  how  lucky  I 
am  and  that  so  far  I've  done  my  duty  and  that  bit 
more  which  counted. 

Our  trip  last  night  was  uneventful,  and  as  I 
have  been  over  the  same  road  at  least  six  times  it 
was  more  or  less  monotonous.  However,  the 
place  where  we  stopped  for  supper  was  under  free 
bombardment.  The  shells  were  coming  in  about 
once  every  minute.  The  whizzytheth  XX!  and 
then  a  bang!  It  was  rather  disconcerting  even 
when  one  knew  they  were  landing  three  hundred 
feet  away.  The  French  batteries  were  mighty 
busy,  too,  and  it  was  like  being  in  a  mighty 
thunderstorm  which  never  stopped  thundering 
an  instant.  One  gets  so  that  he  can  distinguish 
the  size  of  the  gun  by  the  strength  of  the  explo- 
sion and  it  was  amusing  to  guess  which  was 
which. 


44  Camion  Letters 


I  don't  think  I  ever  told  you  just  how  we  were 
organized.     That  is,  what  every  oMcier  is  sup- 
posed to  do.    Well,  there  are  five  degrees  of  rank. 
The  Assistant  Driver,  Driver,  Corporal,  Sergeant, 
and  Chief.     The  Assistant  Driver  helps  out  on 
everything  and  the  Driver  is  only  a  degree  higher 
in  that  he  is  responsible  for  the  car.    Both  have  to 
clean  the  car,  repair  it,  etc.,  and  also  act  in  turn 
with  the  other  men  as  camp  police.     The  Cor- 
poral has  to  see  that  the  work  is  done  and  done 
right  and  in  convoy  rides  in  the  last  car  of  each 
section  to  see  that  the  convoy  is  kept  from  trail- 
ing out  along  the  road,  and  in  case  a  car  has  to 
stop  sizes  up  the  trouble,  fixes  it  if  he  can,  and  if 
not  sees  that  it  gets  home.    The  Sergeant  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  convoy  en  route,  the  camp  and 
men  in  general,  while  the  Chief  does  the  whole 
thing,  and  rides  in  the  Staff  car.    If  he  is  a  good 
man  and  has  a  good  bunch,  his  responsibilities  are 
light,  if  not  they  are  heavy. 

I  must  do  the  rounds,  so  good-bye  until  later. 


Camion  Letters  45 

XVII 

Somewhere  in  France,  July,  ipi/. 

It  is  three  o'clock  this  afternoon  and  I  have 
only  just  got  up,  the  reason  being  that  I  did  not 
get  in  until  eight  this  morning.  We  had  a  long, 
hard  trip  yesterday  and  last  night.  Left  here  at 
two  in  the  afternoon,  picked  up  a  load  of  barbed 
wire,  then  ran  up  toward  the  lines  as  far  as  we 
could  in  daylight  and  stopped  for  supper  about 
5  o'clock.  Three  of  us  had  bought  some  cheese, 
bread,  and  jam,  so  with  the  modest  rations  fur- 
nished us  we  had  an  excellent  supper,  sitting  out 
in  the  middle  of  a  field  with  a  fine  view  off  to 
the  west  and  no  reminders  from  the  north  that 
such  a  thing  as  war  was  going  on. 

We  had  not  been  there  very  long  before  we 
heard  a  hiss  and  a  bang  nearby  and  ran  over  to 
see  what  had  happened.  We  found  that  one  of 
the  crew  boys  had  picked  up  a  hand  grenade  and 
thrown  it  into  a  nearby  trench,  but  it  failed  to 
explode,  so  he  looked  over  to  discover  the  reason, 
with  the  result  it  went  off  and  some  jagged  splin- 
ters hit  him  in  the  leg  above  the  knee.  We  band- 
aged him  up,  hailed  a  passing  ambulance  and 


46  Camion  Letters 

shipped  him  off  to  the  hospital,  from  which  re- 
ports have  come  that  the  slug  was  easily  removed 
and  he  will  soon  be  out.  He  was  a  lucky 
lad. 

The  fields  about  here  are  filled  with  unexploded 
shell  and  hand  grenades  and  bombs  and  we  have 
strict  orders  not  to  touch  them,  so  it  was  his  own 
fault,  pure  and  simple.  Well,  we  had  to  wait 
until  10  o'clock  so  we  would  not  be  seen  before 
going  to  the  lines.  We  ran  down  into  the  gully 
of  the  Aisne  river  and  just  as  we  were  about  to 
cross  the  stream  the  car  ahead  of  me,  instead  of 
turning  and  going  over  the  new  bridge,  headed 
straight  for  the  one  which  had  been  destroyed  and 
almost  got  there,  but  was  stopped  in  time.  I 
turned  to  the  right  without  waiting  for  him, 
crossed  the  new  makeshift  bridge  and  went  bang- 
ing along  up  the  opposite  slope  where  we  were  to 
unload. 

There  was  no  shelling  to  speak  of,  so  soon  all 
ten  trucks  were  unloaded  and  we  were  ready  to 
go  home,  but  it  was  not  to  be.  There  was  a 
lot  of  heavy  shells  which  were  to  be  moved  to 
another  spot  from  a  nearby  abandoned  battery,  so 
we  cranked  up  and  started  off  for  another  load. 


Camion  Letters  47 

It  was  awfully  dark  and  cloudy  and  just  begin- 
ning to  rain,  so  there  was  some  excuse  for  my 
almost  running  down  some  soldiers  on  their  way 
back  from  the  trenches.  They  were  marching 
along  silently  in  the  dark,  the  Captain  with  his 
dog  leading  the  way  on  foot;  the  soldiers  with 
their  rifles  and  packs  close  behind  him;  they  fol- 
lowed by  the  supply  wagons. 

There  is  something  most  impressive  about  the 
way  these  infantry  officers  lead  their  men.  For 
the  most  part  they  are  men  well  on  towards  middle 
age;  that  is,  the  higher  officers;  instead  of  riding 
they  usually  walk  along  just  ahead  of  the  younger 
officers  and  invariably  they  are  accompanied  by 
a  German  police  dog.  You  get  the  impression 
that  they  expect  nothing  better  than  the  men  get, 
stand  the  same  marches  and  the  same  hard- 
ships and  at  the  same  time  carry  all  the  respon- 
sibility that  the  command  of  a  body  of  men 
brings. 

So  having  passed  by,  we  ran  on  for  a  few  kilo- 
meters in  the  pouring  rain;  the  unloaded  trucks 
slid  first  to  one  side  of  the  road,  then  to  the  other, 
with  sometimes  a  wheel  in  the  ditch.  After  some 
time  we  found  the  shells  which  turned  out  to  be 


48  Camion  Letters 

those  huge  320's.  It  took  the  men  a  long  time 
to  load  them,  so  we  coiled  up  on  the  seats,  pulled 
our  thick  coats  over  us,  and  slept  soundly  in  the 
rain  for  almost  two  hours. 

Then  came  the  order  to  move,  the  cars  roared 
and  spluttered;  one  went  into  a  ditch  and  had  to 
be  pulled  out.  Another  lost  all  the  water  from 
its  radiator  because  the  car  ahead  smashed  into 
it  but  went  along,  the  last  car  towing  the  invalid. 
The  road  we  ran  along  would  in  daylight  have 
been  about  as  safe  as  a  lane  in  no  m.an's  land,  but 
now  with  only  the  star  shells  burning  over  us 
and  no  sausages  or  balloons  up  it  was  as  safe  as 
Harrison  Avenue  on  a  summer  night.  The  star 
shells  lighted  things  up  wonderfully. 

We  went  rumbling  through  deserted  villages, 
the  noise  of  the  trucks  becoming  a  roar  in  the 
little  narrow  streets.  Never  a  soul  do  you  see 
in  these  little  ruined  towns;  it  is  almost  uncanny. 
Most  of  the  little  houses  are  roofless,  some  have 
great  gaping  holes  in  the  walls,  many  have  little 
left  but  the  walls  themselves,  which  stand  out  in 
all  their  jaggedness  against  the  blaze  of  light  to 
the  north.  A  sentry  stood  at  the  bridge  as  we 
crossed  a  poplar  lined  canal.     We  ran  along 


Camion  Letters  49 

through  the  country  again,  but  soon  entered  one 
of  the  prettiest  French  towns  I  have  yet  seen. 

The  streets  were  wide  (for  a  French  town), 
most  of  the  buildings  were  chateaux  set  well  back 
from  the  road  among  the  trees,  and  oddly  enough 
they  were  little  damaged  from  shell  fire.  Off  to 
the  right  a  square  church  tower,  surmounted  by 
the  usual  ugly  spire  which  spoils  so  many  French 
country  churches,  was  clearly  visible. 

We  turned  to  the  left  and  suddenly  came  into 
a  part  of  the  town  which  had  been  torn  to  pieces. 
The  trees  were  cut  off  near  the  ground,  though 
some  still  stood  with  a  grotesque  limb  or  two 
stuck  out  from  the  trunk.  The  houses  were  in 
ruins;  great  round  shadows  in  the  gardens  showed 
where  some  of  the  shells  had  landed.  It  was 
almost  impossible  to  believe  that  this  was  a  part 
of  the  same  town. 

We  passed  on  again  into  the  country  and  turned 
back  toward  the  south.  The  star  shells  behind 
us  cast  the  shadows  of  the  camion  on  the  road 
before  us.  No  longer  was  the  illumination  an 
aid;  it  was  most  decidedly  a  hindrance.  The 
road  became  rougher;  we  bumped  rapidly  on  and 
then  suddenly  came  out  into  one  of  those  great 


50  Camion  Letters 

broad  highways  for  which  France  is  famous. 
Those  of  us  who  were  wise  enough  to  remove  the 
governors  from  our  cars  flew  along;  those  who 
had  not  bumped  placidly  on.  Finally,  just  as  it 
was  growing  light,  we  came  to  our  depot,  only 
to  find  we  could  not  be  unloaded  until  six  o'clock. 

The  driver  of  the  car  ahead  of  me  let  down  the 
back  of  his  truck,  exposing  the  forty-odd  shells 
which  lay  there.  He  thought  he  would  be  un- 
loaded there,  but  instead  he  was  told  to  move 
further  on.  Forgetting  that  his  tailboard  was 
down,  he  started  ahead,  jolting  over  the  corduroy 
road.  I  saw  the  last  one  of  the  shells  move  back, 
then  it  rolled  a  bit  nearer  the  edge.  I  did  not 
budge,  but  sat  there  scared  stiff.  Nearer  it  came 
and  suddenly  rolled  off  and  dropped  five  feet 
onto  the  log  roadway  and  lay  there.  I  had  not 
dared  to  breathe,  for  it  seemed  an  hour,  and  all 
I  could  do  was  to  gulp.  So  we  curled  up  again 
on  our  coats. 

The  rain  began  again,  but  we  slept  on  for  two 
hours,  until  the  men  came  to  unload  us.  Then 
we  flew  for  home,  picking  up  some  turbaned 
African  soldiers  who  asked  for  a  lift.  At  7:  30 
a.m.  we  pulled  in  here  and  at  8  we  were  sound 


Camion  Letters  51 

asleep  after  eighteen  hours  on  the  road.  I  have 
gone  into  detail  about  this  trip,  so  as  to  show 
what  our  work  is  like.  Sometimes  we  have  more 
excitement  in  various  forms,  but  it  was  an  average 
trip. 


XVIII 

We  are  resting  by  the  road — a  very  common 
thing  in  the  Transport  Military  Service.  I  have 
a  load  of  green  wood — for  trestle  work — which 
cannot  weigh  more  than  34,000  pounds,  for  it  is 
only  a  5-ton  truck. 

As  my  paper  may  testify  before  my  interrupted 
letter  is  complete,  I  have  not  washed  my  hands 
or  face  for  more  than  sixty  hours.  My  last  bath 
was  taken  in  Paris. 

I  spoke  above  of  interruptions.  They  are  not 
orders  to  proceed,  or  unload,  or  any  such  thing. 
The  first  was  to  watch  a  snappy  combat  of  soi.vante 
quinses  and  a  squadron  of  Boche  airplanes.    They 

seemed  to  be  directly  over  N ,  which  is  some 

twelve  kilometers  from  F where  we  are  tem- 
porarily quartered.    The  pet  guns  of  the  French, 


52  Camion  Letters 

the  little  pieces  which  with  the  aid  of  the  inferior 
Fifth  Avenue  buses  are  reputed  to  have  saved 
Paris  pounded  away  for  about  ten  minutes.  They 
sprinkled  little  white  puffs  all  over  the  sky  but 
didn't  seem  to  be  coming  within  some  nine  or  ten 
miles  of  the  white-bellied  evening  birds.  The 
latter,  however,  apparently  were  wasting  no  time 
or  gasoline  in  getting  up  and  away.  They  were 
soon  out  of  sight.  The  poilus  who  insist  upon 
treating  us  as  we  do  a  circus  parade  claimed  that 
several  of  the  booms  were  aerial  bombs.  How- 
ever they  tell  us  anything  they  think  we  can 
understand  of  their  French  so  it  is  hard  to  believe 
anything. 

The  second  interruption  (which  as  it  hap- 
pened occurred  some  fifteen  minutes  before 
the  other — and  a  few  less  before  I  began 
this  letter)  was  a  large  troop  movement.  It 
is  nothing  new,  or  unique.  But  of  course 
it  may  interest  you  somewhat.  They  were 
mostly  French  Hindu  Chinese,  whom  the  French 
call  "  Annamites,"  but  were  sprinkled  with  Sene- 
galese and  natives.  Pinched  in  between  them 
were  a  few  hundred  German  prisoners.  They 
looked  very  much  like  little  boys  who  had  been 


Camion  Letters  53 

caught  on  five  or  six  dictionaries  and  a  morocco 
bound  copy  of  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship  eating 
jam.  They  weren't  having  any  fun,  though, 
where  these  were,  and  you  can  hardly  hate  any 
one  who  has  lived  like  a  rat  in  the  ground  for 
months. 

I  have  seen  a  bit  of  that  ferret-life.  We  have 
been  through  miles  of  first  line  trenches  which  had 
been  evacuated  by  the  Germans  several  weeks  be- 
fore. We  also  thoroughly  investigated  the  vil- 
lage of  N ,  which  the  French  tore  completely 

to  pieces  to  retake  it  from  the  Germans.  We  got 
what  we  had  been  asking  for  in  Paris,  almost  the 
day  we  left  it — excitement !  Some  of  us  wanted 
it  and  some  of  us  thought  we  wanted  it.  Now, 
of  course,  we  sleep  with  210  and  bigger  shells 
hurtling  their  demoniac  way  over  our  heads.  But 
the  first  day  that  we  crouched  in  a  rehearsal 
trench  watching  the  French  rookies  In  hand  gren- 
ade practice,  there  wasn't  one  of  us  that  didn't 
shake  all  over  every  once  in  a  while — perhaps 
every  time  a  grenade  was  thrown. 

We  are  part  of  the  French  Army.  Just  what 
our  status  will  be  when  our  troops,  promised  for 
July,  arrive  we  have  not  yet  been  able  to  dis- 


54  Camion  Letters 

cover.  Finding  out  anything  is  the  hardest  work 
we  have.  Often  we  don't  know  where  we  are  or 
where  we  are  going.  We  never  know  when  we 
are  through  or  when  we  are  starting.  In  fact  we 
know  very  Httle  except  that  we  work  hard  and 
probably  shall  until  we  get  back  to  Paris. 

Since  starting  the  above  paragraph  we  have 
come  some  eighteen  miles,  steady  running  over 
deeply  rutted  roads,  muddy  roads,  and  over- 
trafficked  roads.  A  tired,  sleepy-looking  gang  of 
unfit-for-the-front  peasants  are  nonchalantly  un- 
loading the  poles.  I  am  carrying  forty-six  and 
the  seven  men  disturbing  my  camion  should  have 
them  out  in  time  for  dinner-supper,  which  is  in 
two  hours. 

This  above  statement  is  misleading.  Supper  is 
any  time  we  get  back;  just  as  breakfast  is  fifteen 
minutes  before  we  leave — be  that  at  4  or  8. 
Lunch  is  any  time  motors  are  hot  enough  to  stop 
the  convois. 

If  I  am  giving  the  impression  that  a  single 
one  of  us  is  displeased  or  dissatisfied  it  is  an 
erroneous  one.  Lately,  since  we  have  left  our 
training  camp,  we  have  been  mostly  marking  time. 
I  repeat  that  things  are  quiet  along  most  of  the 


Camion  Letters  55 

French  front  and  especially  where  we  happen  to 
be.  Near  here  we  have  been  extraordinarily  suc- 
cessful and  the  air  supremacy  is  assured,  I 
imagine.    However,  French  newspapers  must  bow 

in  accuracy  and  unbiasedness  even  to  The ; 

and  French  soldiers,  even  officers,  are  pretty 
badly  informed  as  to  what  is  happening  except 
in  their  own  sections. 

England  is  of  course  just  catching  her  stride. 
I  doubt  if  she  has  her  second  wind.  Each  day, 
however,  she  extends  her  lines,  relieving  the 
French  strain  and  allowing  a  more  perfect  con- 
centration of  offensive  forces.  The  Australians 
are  constantly  the  recipients  of  unending  praise 
and  the  Canadians  and  New  Zealanders  are  hon- 
ored. The  Scotch  (who  wear  silk  plaid  breeches 
in  every  Paris  cafe)  are  absolutely  worshipped. 

To  return  to  my  statement  of  our  treatment 
and  satisfaction.  They  love  us,  particularly  be- 
cause we  are  volunteers  and  especially  because  we 
are  Americans.  They  cannot  do  enough  for  us  in 
every  way. 

The  work  is  spasmodic — that  is  all  that  we 
object  to.  We  may  work  seventy  hours  and  then 
loaf  and  make  ourselves  think  we  are  not  (which 


56  Camion  Letters 

is  the  harder)  for  three  times  seventy.  Even  at 
that  it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  no  alarm-clock 
will  waken  you  at  7  (a  rough  hand  will  do  it  at 
5)  to  attend  a  lecture  on  Roman  Lawyers  and 
their  friends  by  a  much-esteemed  Professor. 

I  am  at  this  moment  the  camp  favorite.  A 
New  York  Times  for  Sunday,  April  15,  has  just 
arrived.  It  is  the  first  American  newspaper  that 
has  disturbed  our  quiet  and  most  blissful  coma  of 
ignorance. 


XIX 

Somewhere  in  July. 
We  left  the  training  camp  about  a  week  ago 
and  arrived  at  our  permanent  place  of  abode  after 
about  six  hours  of  riding  in  the  camions.    The 

camp  is  at  J ,  about  seven  miles  from  the 

front,  and  in  the  Aisne  district.  We  were  put  into 
barracks,  but  before  we  had  time  to  get  settled 
and  everything  put  to  rights  we  were  called  to  go 
out  on  a  drive  which  lasted  all  night.  The  work 
has  kept  up  ever  since  and  last  night  was  the  first 
that  we  have  had  over  five  hours'  sleep  in. 


Camion  Letters  57 

The  camion  that  Elmer  and  I  received  (there 
are  two  of  us  on  each  truck)  was  a  5-ton 
Pierce-Arrow,  which  was  in  fairly  good  shape. 
It  has  been  through  the  battles  of  the  Somme  and 
the  Marne  and  has  three  shell  and  five  or  six 
bullet  holes  in  it.  El  and  I  have  worked  on  it 
all  our  spare  time  and  now  it  is  running  in  fine 
order.  Over  here  you  have  to  do  all  the  repairs 
on  the  cars  yourself  and  that  is  no  slight  job 
with  some  of  these  old  trucks. 

The  other  day  we  left  at  five  in  the  morning 
and   loaded   at   park   and   drove   about   twenty 

miles  to  B at  C where  we  left  our  load 

in  the  dumping  park.  While  we  were  waiting 
there  for  the  Frenchmen  to  unload, — and  believe 
me  they  are  mighty  slow  workers, — we  had  a 
very  interesting  sight. 

A  French  airplane  was  over  the  trenches  drop- 
ping a  few  bombs,  when  all  of  a  sudden  a  German 
plane  came  out.  The  French  plane  retreated 
back  over  his  own  trenches  with  the  other  fol- 
lowing him.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight  to  see  the 
shrapnel  from  the  French  anti-aircraft  guns 
bursting  white  pufifs  around  the  German  flyer. 
The  Frenchman  finally  got  above  the  Boche  and 


58  Camion  Letters 

came  down  in  a  spiral  around  him,  firing  his 
machine-gun.  As  he  did  so  the  Boche  must  have 
been  hit  because  he  zigzagged  down  to  earth, 
leaving  a  trail  of  smoke  behind  him.  The  min- 
ute he  started  falling,  all  the  French  poilus 
started  yelling,  for  the  German  planes  do  an 
awful  lot  of  damage  dropping  bombs  at  night 
and  the  French  are  glad  to  get  back  at 
them. 

We  went  back  again  and  loaded  up  at  another 
park  and  went  across  the  Aisne  river  to  a  little 
town  behind  a  hill  where  we  had  to  wait  until 
dark  before  we  could  go  ahead.  About  nine 
o'clock  we  took  our  load  of  shells,  seventy-fives, 

to  Chateau  S ,  which  is  about  one  mile  from 

the  trenches.  There  are  two  batteries  of  seventy- 
fives  and  one  of  one  hundred  fifty-fives  there  and 
when  they  were  all  going  at  once  it  certainly  was 
some  Fourth  of  July  by  the  noise.  When  the 
deportees  left  the  guns  you  would  see  a  flash  and 
then  hear  a  report  followed  by  a  whirring  moan. 
That  is  all  right,  but  when  you  hear  an  arrivee, 
a  shriek  followed  by  a  report,  if  it  is  anywhere 
near  you,  you  want  to  get  right  down  on  your 
face  on  the  ground.     You  are  quite  safe  if  you 


Camion  Letters  59 

do  that  because  the  fragments  of  shells  scatter 
in  parabolas  from  where  they  land. 

On  the  way  home  just  after  we  crossed  the 

bridge  over  the  Aisne  at  P d'A ,  one  of 

the  cars  ran  out  of  gas  so  the  whole  rame  stopped 
and  as  luck  would  have  it  the  Germans  started 
shelling  the  bridge  with  high  explosive  shells. 
They  didn't  quite  have  the  range  and  the  first 
shell  landed  seventy-five  yards  from  us  and  the 
second  about  fifty  feet  away.  The  last  covered 
us  with  dirt  and  the  fuse  landed  on  the  road  right 
side  of  one  of  the  fellows  and  he  now  has  it  as  a 
souvenir.  We  all  must  have  had  horseshoes  tied 
to  us,  however,  and  nobody  has  been  hit  in  our 
section  as  yet. 

Well,  we  have  got  to  roll  pretty  soon  now,  so  I 
must  close.  Give  my  love  to  all  the  folks  and 
write  soon  because  anything  no  matter  how  short 
seems  mighty  good  to  us  out  here. 


6o  Camion  Letters 

XX 

Augiist  ist,  19 17. 

I'm  telling  the  world  I'm  tired.  It  is  now 
twelve  days  and  twelve  nights  that  we  have  been 
working  with  only  a  little  time  between  trips  to 
eat  and  write  letters.  About  all  our  sleep  we  get 
on  our  cars  while  they  are  being  loaded.  But  now 
we  are  all  getting  hardened  to  the  work  so  it's  not 
so  bad.  As  for  dirt,  well  if  cleanliness  is  next  to 
godliness  then  I  guess  we  all  live  next  door  to  the 
devil,  for  water  is  scarce.  There  isn't  much  to 
write  today,  for  nothing  much  has  happened. 

The  last  three  days  I  have  been  running  the 
wrecking  car  and  since  it  has  been  raining  for  a 
couple  of  days  it  has  been  some  job.  When  it 
rains  here  the  roads  all  disappear  and  two  or 
three  inches  of  slimy  mud  take  their  place.  Con- 
sequently lots  of  cars  slide  off  into  the  ditches 
and  we  have  to  haul  them  out.  One  car  started 
across  country  for  Berlin  but  landed  up  against 
one  of  the  screens  which  protect  the  Route 
Gardue  so  didn't  get  far.  He  was  loaded  with 
ammunition  which  we  had  to  unload,  then  pull 
him  back  on  the  road,  load  him  up  again  and  ship 


Camion  Letters  6l 

him  off.  Then  another  car  slipped  off  into  a  field 
and  we  had  to  repeat  the  process.  Finally  after 
forty-eight  hours  of  work  like  that  we  started 
for  camp  but  picked  up  a  car  with  a  broken  drive 
shaft  and  had  to  tow  it  fifteen  miles  back  to  the 
repair  shop.  But  when  we  got  there  about  lo 
o'clock  this  morning  such  a  meal  as  they  had  for 
us!  Good  beef,  string  beans,  lentils,  potatoes, 
bread  and  cheese,  and  hot  coffee!  Gosh!  It 
tasted  like  a  million  dollars. 

Our  camp  is  situated  a  short  way  behind  the 
lines  so  that  we  do  not  have  to  go  far  to  the 
munition  depots,  but  since  we  are  supplying  two 
sectors  now  we  have  to  haul  a  long  way.  I  have 
forgotten  whether  I  told  about  our  camp  so  I 
will  tell  you  now.  We  have  a  large  tent  which 
serves  as  a  dining-room  and  as  a  recreation  room. 
Around  this  are  grouped  trailers,  called 
remorquiSj  in  which  we  sleep.  These  are  about 
six  feet  by  ten  and  three  men  live  in  each  with 
hanging  beds  suspended  from  the  roof.  So  far 
we  have  found  them  very  comfortable  but  I  bet 
they'll  be  cold  in  winter.  At  any  rate  we  don't 
sleep  much  in  them,  so  we  should  worry.  We 
have  our  own  cooking  staff  and  are  very  well 


62  Camion  Letters 

taken  care  of  in  that  respect.  Outside  of  the 
regular  French  officers'  fare  we  receive  forty 
cents  a  day  extra  toward  food,  so  you  see  we 
fare  well.  For  breakfast  we  have  eggs,  bread  and 
jam,  and  coffee.  For  dinner  we  get  meat  (usually 
beef),  rice  or  spaghetti,  bread  and  jam,  and 
coffee.  Supper  is  our  big  meal, — we  have  meat, 
potatoes,  beans  or  lentils,  some  kind  of  fruit, 
vegetables,  and  hot  tea  or  coffee.  The  only  thing 
we  lack  is  sweet  stuff  but  we  buy  chocolate  to 
fill  in.  Just  at  present  I  am  out  of  money  so  I 
don't  get  any,  so  it's  not  much  loss. 

It  is  rumored  around  camp  that  we  move  for 
new  quarters  tomorrow.  We  go  up  to  the  West- 
ern front  where  there  is  a  big  French  and  British 
offensive  going  on.  When  we  move  all  we  have 
to  do  is  to  hitch  our  remorqids  behind  our  trucks 
and  go.  It's  like  picking  up  your  bed  and  walk- 
ing. By  moving  so  much  we  will  eventually  see 
most  of  the  front,  which  will  be  fine.  The  offen- 
sive around  here  last  week  resulted  in  the  French 
gaining  what  they  desired  so  they  will  probably 
have  a  lull  here  for  a  while.  But  while  this 
attack  lasted  (for  two  weeks)  it  was  terrible. 
There  are  some  pictures  in  Leslie's  Magazine  of 


Camion  Letters  63 

July  the  5th,  which  shows  some  pictures  of 
screened  roads.  These  are  taken  on  this  front  and 
are  roads  which  I  have  travelled  over.  The 
bridge  pictured  was  recently  blown  up  by  a  shell. 
These  pictures  might  interest  you  as  other  pic- 
tures also  in  it  show  pictures  of  this  front. 

Well,  we  have  to  carry  some  bomb-proofs  up 
to  a  town  near  the  front  lines  tonight,  so  I  must 
close.  We  go  up  to  this  town  by  night  because 
the  road  up  is  visible  to  the  Germans  and  our 
convoy  would  be  a  tasty  bit  to  them.  Therefore 
we  go  up  there  at  night.  I  had  to  tow  a  car  down 
from  there  the  other  day  in  broad  daylight,  but 
nothing  happened  and  we  weren't  fired  on  once. 


XXI 

Paris,  May  6,  iQiy. 
This  is  my  first  letter  to  you  all  since  my 
arrival  in  Paris.  My  last  letter  home  was  writ- 
ten on  the  boat  from  which  we  landed  without 
event  on  April  25th.  I  shall  never  forget  the 
last  morning  on  board.  I  climbed  out  of  bed 
early   in  order  to  be  on  deck  when   the   boat 


64  Camion  Letters 

arrived  in  sight  of  land.  When  I  got  up  on 
deck,  through  the  mist  could  be  seen  indistinctly 
the  shore  line,  which  in  an  hour  became  a  mass  of 
green  landscape.  After  eleven  days  of  nothing 
but  water  in  motion,  it  was  the  greatest  relief  to 
the  eyes  to  see  land  again.  Soon  we  were  in  the 
harbor  feasting  our  eyes  on  the  beautiful  farms 
and  hamlets  which  ran  down  to  the  water's  edge 
not  over  one  hundred  yards  away.  By  noon  we 
were  up  the  harbor  as  far  as  the  tide  would  let 
us  go,  waiting  for  higher  tide  before  proceeding 
to  Bordeaux;  away  again  at  4  p.m.,  arriving 
at  the  end  of  our  journey  at  10  o'clock  Wednes- 
day night.  As  the  hotels  were  nearly  all  filled, 
we  remained  on  the  boat  all  night. 

In  the  morning  we  barely  had  time  to  breakfast 
and  send  for  a  few  cards  before  our  train  left 
for  Paris.  I  did  not,  therefore,  have  time  to 
see  much  of  Bordeaux.  The  trains  and  train 
service  here  are  far  superior  to  what  I  had 
imagined  they  would  be.  First-class  engines, 
good,  though  crude  coaches,  made  up  of  six  to 
ten  passenger  compartments.  Ten  of  us  climbed 
into  one  of  these  in  a  second-class  coach,  and  we 
jvere  off.    The  Government  took  us  up,  so  as  ^e 


Camion  Letters  65 

travelled  free  of  charge,  we  saw  nothing  of  the 
conductor  all  the  way. 

The  trip  was  without  exception  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  interesting  that  I  have  ever  taken.  All 
of  France  is  wearing  its  spring  coat.  The  farms 
run  right  up  to  the  tracks.  Garden  truck  and 
grain  are  up,  and  the  fields  are  full  of  laborers — 
mostly  women.  The  few  men  seen  were  either 
crippled,  wounded,  or  too  old  for  army  service. 
Most  of  the  traction  on  the  farms  is  done  by  oxen; 
more  so  now  I  understand  than  formerly,  as  the 
horses  all  go  to  the  front. 

The  farmsteads,  though  humble,  are  as  neat  as 
pins.  Gardens  come  up  to  the  door;  no  space  is 
wasted.  All  of  the  houses  are  of  stone,  or  a 
kind  of  mud  plaster,  and  all  the  houses  on  farms 
and  in  the  little  towns  have  red  tile  roofs.  One 
feels  on  passing  through  the  country  that  he  is 
constantly  in  a  mammoth  old-fashioned  garden, 
so  neat  and  quiet  and  beautiful  is  everything. 
Some  of  the  boys  played  cards  all  of  the  way  up. 
I  couldn't  leave  the  window,  for  the  beauty  of  the 
scene  gripped  me  from  the  moment  we  left 
Bordeaux. 

After  nine  too  short  hours,  we  arrived  in  Paris 


66  Camion  Letters 

at  dusk,  and  were  taken  at  once  to  headquarters, 
tired,  dirty  (they  use  soft  coal  on  the  railroads), 
but  glad  to  get  where  we  could  get  something 
under  the  belt  and  then  a  clean  bed.  21  rue 
Raynouard  was  full  to  capacity,  as  was  the  over- 
flow on  rue  Lekain,  but  they  had  rented  a  good 
sized  chapel  next  to  the  house  on  rue  Lekain,  and 
arranged  twenty-five  cots  in  rows  there.  About 
twenty  of  the  Cornell  bunch,  including  myself, 
picked  cots  there,  and  yours  truly  went  at  once  to 
bed  to  sleep  the  sleep  of  the  just. 

It  is  a  mighty  comfortable  camp.  We  got 
breakfast  at  the  house  next  door  in  rue  Lekain, 
and  the  other  meals  at  headquarters  on  rue  Ray- 
nouard. The  feed  is  excellent  and  we  could  not 
be  treated  better.  Headquarters  is  a  fine  old 
mansion  given  for  the  duration  of  the  war  by 
the  owners  to  the  American  Field  Service.  It 
backs  on  to  a  beautiful  park,  sloping  down  to 
the  Seine,  the  existence  of  which  would  not  be 
suspected  from  a  look  at  the  grim,  homely  appear- 
ance of  the  front  of  the  house  on  rue  Raynouard. 
The  interior,  though  now  bare  of  carpets  and 
expensive  furniture,  suggests  grandeur.  Great 
halls  and  stairways,  a  beautiful  panelled  dining- 


Camion  Letters  67 

room,  and  imposing  terraces  in  the  rear,  all  fit 
in  with  one's  impressions  (derived  from  books) 
of  French  love  of  the  beautiful.  The  rooms 
now  are  dormitories  for  the  men  while  in  Paris, 
and  offices,  a  lounge  and  a  dining-room  and  a 
great  kitchen.    We  are  well  taken  care  of  here. 

I  have  been  rather  busy  since  my  arrival  and 
have  not  really  had  an  opportunity  to  see  Paris. 
I  have,  however,  taken  advantage  of  what  spare 
time  I  have  had  to  see  the  exterior  of  some  of 
the  most  beautiful  buildings  and  some  of  the 
parks.  Most  of  the  famous  buildings,  as  the 
Louvre,  etc.,  are  closed  to  the  public,  on  account 
of  the  war,  and  I,  therefore  will  not  be  able  to 
see  the  inside  of  them,  but  it  is  most  interesting 
to  wander  about  just  looking  at  these  magnificent 
buildings  with  their  surrounding  parks  and  won- 
derful statues;  one  reads  history,  struggles,  sacri- 
fice, at  every  step.  I  imagine  France  is  going 
through  now  on  a  large  scale  what  she  has  been 
through  for  many,  many  generations.  Her  monu- 
ments are  predominantly  war  monuments,  her 
art  that  art  inspired  by  great  sacrifice  and  love  of 
country.  Already  I  feel  that  I  have  learned 
much  that  I  needed  to  learn.     If  I  were  to  re- 


^8  Camion  Letters 

turn  now  I  would  feel  repaid  for  the  trip.  I 
shall  have  much  to  tell  you  of  this  wonderful 
place  and  these  wonderful  people  after  I  have 
been  in  contact  with  them  longer. 

What  has  impressed  me  most  during  my  short 
stay  here  is  the  earnestness  of  the  French  people 
in  the  present  conflict;  their  willingness  to  sac- 
rifice everything  for  the  great  cause  wh.ch  they 
have  been  upholding  for  the  world  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war.     There  are   few  men  m 
civilian  clothes  seen  in  Paris,  and  those  few  are 
cripples  and  old  men.    Women  predominate  to 
a  great  degree,  and  I  think  it  conservative  to  say 
that  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  women  are  m 
black.    And  yet  there  is  little  sadness  displayed. 
True  there  are  few  smiling  faces  to  be  seen,  too 
great  a  tragedy  is  being  acted  for  these  poor 
people  to  find  much  joy  in  life,  and  yet  no  one 
complains;  each  plays  the  part  willingly  knowmg 
that  the  sacrifice  has  been  made  for  France.    Th.s 
is  indeed  a  wonderful  people.    But  Paris  is  no 

longer  gay. 

It  is  indeed  a  great  consolation  to  me  now, 
more  so  than  I  ever  imagined  it  would  be,  to  know 
that  the  United  States  is  at  last  a  participant 


Camion  Letters  69 

in  this  awful  affair.  It  is  indeed  a  miserable 
affair  and  a  pity  that  the  whole  world  should  be 
required  to  turn  from  the  ordinary  pursuits  of 
life  and  peace  to  those  of  war.  But  for  a  long 
time  a  war  against  oppression,  crime,  and  fright- 
fulness  has  been  waged  for  us,  and  we  have 
reaped  the  "  benefits  "  in  money. 

Thank  God  we  can  now  lift  up  our  heads  and 
square  our  shoulders  again!  The  Stars  and 
Stripes  again  means  what  it  meant  in  '76  and  '12 
and  '61 — it  stands  for  honor  and  peace  and 
humanity  even  though  the  price  be  war.  I  long 
for  the  day  when  our  first  American  troops  land 
in  France  to  fight  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the 
rest  of  the  world  against  selfishness  and  greed, 
and  when  this  war  is  over,  as  I  pray  it  soon 
will  be,  may  America,  my  country,  take  the 
initiative  in  the  movement  for  an  alliance  of 
nations,  a  world  federation  so  organized  that 
war  will  no  longer  be  possible.  Do  not  think  that 
mine  is  a  schoolboy  patriotism.  I  despise  a  fight 
as  such;  I  despise  war — as  such.  We — the  United 
States — are  fighting  against  war — not  for  it. 


yo  Camion  Letters 


XXII 

June  10,  19 17. 

Here  I  am  again  and  my  intention  is  to  com- 
plete this  letter  at  this  sitting  and  get  it  off  to  you 
tonight.  I  had  similar  intentions  on  the  fifth, 
but  was  called  for  a  meeting  while  writing  and 
this  is  the  first  opportunity  I  have  had  since  then 
to  write  you.  I  am  writing  this  under  far  differ- 
ent circumstances  and  conditions  than  those  sur- 
rounding me  when  I  wrote  the  above.  In  the  first 
place  I  am  seated  on  a  pile  of  straw  under  a  tent 
somewhere  in  France  as  a  member  of  T.  M.  23, 
with  address  changed  to  B.  C.  M.,  Paris,  France. 

I  am  still  in  the  American  Field  Service  doing, 
however,  different  work  than  I  had  originally 
planned.  On  May  5th,  Mr.  Andrew,  the  head 
of  the  American  Field  Service,  called  all  the 
Cornell  men  together  and  outlined  a  plan  which 
the  French  Government  asked  him  to  adopt.  As 
the  United  States  is  no  longer  neutral  the  Ameri- 
can Field  Service  has  been  asked  to  extend  its 
activities  and  supply  men  for  transport  work  at 
the  front  as  well  as  for  ambulance  work.     At 


Camion  Letters  71 

present  there  is  a  great  lack  of  drivers  for  the 
big  transport  ammunition  trucks — a  lack  which 
is  not  felt  in  the  ambulance  work. 

The  plan  as  presented  to  us  was  for  as  many 
men  as  possible  among  those  present  who  could 
pass  the  physical  examination  to  volunteer  for 
this  service  instead  of  for  the  ambulance;  to  re- 
cruit to  forty  men  and  leave  at  once  for  a  week's 
training  at  some  point  out  toward  the  front.  The 
plan  was  adopted  and  after  getting  our  equipment 
together  and  being  passed  on  by  the  doctor,  forty 
of  us  left  Paris  yesterday  morning  after  a  most 
impressive  ceremony.  We  were  given  a  banquet 
Monday  night  at  which  Ambassador  Sharp  and 
several  high  up  French  officers  addressed  us  with 
stirring  speeches.  Yesterday  morning  we  were 
inspected  under  arms  and  passed  in  review  with 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  waving  in  our  midst. 

Do  not  be  alarmed  at  this  change.  The  work 
is  not  more  dangerous  than  the  ambulance  work, 
but  is  more  to  my  liking.  It  is  belligerent  service 
and  as  the  United  States  is  no  longer  neutral, 
and  as  I  am  praying  that  she  will  send  her  boys 
and  soon  fight  in  a  most  worthy  cause,  I  could 
see  no  reason  why  I  should  now  be  doing  work 


72  Camion  Letters 

which  is  being  carried  on  largely  by  neutrals. 
The  same  organization  is  handling  this  new  serv- 
ice as  is  handling  the  ambulance.  This  is  merely 
a  new  branch — a  new  activity  of  the  Field 
Service.  Our  unit  is  the  first  unit  in  this  service 
and  the  first  organization  of  Americans  to  go  into 
belligerent  service  in  France  since  war  was  de- 
clared by  the  United  States. 

We  left  Paris   for  yesterday  morning 

after  the  fine  send  off,  glad  for  the  change,  and 
arrived  here  in  the  afternoon.  We  spent  the 
afternoon  and  evening  pitching  camp  and  getting 
organized  and  turned  in  early  in  order  to  be  up 
early  in  the  morning.  The  camp  is  in  a  beautiful 
little  valley  just  below  a  pretty,  though  humble 
French  town.  We  have  three  large  tents,  an 
officers'  tent,  and  two  kitchen  wagons,  and  an 
office  wagon.  This  morning  we  had  another 
ceremony  conducted  by  a  French  Captain  and  a 
large  band,  at  which  the  American  and  French 
flags  were  formally  raised  over  the  camp. 

We  shall  be  here  a  week  learning  how  to  drive 
the  big  S-ton  Pierce-Arrow  military  trucks, 
after  which  time  we  will  be  sent  out  into  active 
service  at  the  front.    There  will  be  twenty  trucks 


Camion  Letters  y^ 

travelling  in  convoy,  two  men  to  a  machine,  each 
driving  half  the  time  and  assisting  on  the  road 
the  other  half.  We  begin  the  work  tomorrow  and 
later  I  will  be  able  to  tell  you  more  in  detail  just 
what  we  have  to  do.  There  will  be  much  that  I 
cannot  tell  you  until  I  see  you  again.  Our  orders 
are  very  strict  on  this  point  and  places  and  inci- 
dents will  have  to  be  left  out  of  my  letter.  I'll 
keep  a  diary,  however,  and  will  have  much  to  tell 
you  when  I  see  you  again.  I  am  in  the  best  of 
health  and  am  getting  a  great  deal  out  of  this 
experience ! 


XXIII 

Saturday,  June  i6,  ipi/. 
This  is  a  hot,  sultry  afternoon  and  the  bar- 
racks are  like  ovens,  but  I  want  to  get  a  letter 
started  to  you  now  that  I  have  a  little  time,  so 
I  will  start  it  now  and  finish  it  in  the  cool  of  this 
evening  unless  other  duties  prevent.  I  have  re- 
ceived no  word  from  the  States  since  I  last  wrote 
you,  but  as  a  boat  has  arrived  and  mail  is  be- 


74  Camion  Letters 

ginning  to  come  in  again  I  am  looking  forward 
to  receiving  the  good  home  letters  tonight. 

Last  night  I  had  a  most  pleasant  surprise  in 

the  receipt  of  the  pound  of  tobacco  from  . 

I  was  surely  hungry  for  a  real  smoke,  for  my 
supply  had  run  out  some  time  ago  and  French 
tobacco  is  vile.  So  I  got  out  my  old  jimmy  pipe 
and  filled  it  full  and  then  went  out  and  dreamed 
pipe  dreams.  I  guess  you  know,  without  my 
telling  you,  how  much  I  appreciate  your  keeping 
me  supplied.  You  folks  will  all  have  me  spoiled ; 
what  with  candy  and  books  and  smoke  a  fellow 
is  as  comfortable  as  a  Fifth  Avenue  millionaire 
and  lots  happier. 

Evening — same  day.  Well,  I  didn't  get  far 
this  afternoon.  Just  got  started  when  Tinkham 
called  the  section  out  for  drill.  We  surely  had 
some  workout  and  all  came  in  after  two  hours  of 
it  wringing  wet,  for  this  has  been  about  the  hot- 
test day  we  have  had  and  that  means  pretty  hot 
and  the  heat  here  seems  more  depressing  than  at 
home. 

We  have  had  but  very  little  rain  in  this  sec- 
tion, but  in  spite  of  that  fact  the  crops  seem  to 
be  doing  well.     Though  the  heat  of  the  day  is 


Camion  Letters  71; 

intense,  the  nights  usually  turn  off  cool  and  re- 
freshing. A  heavy  dew  falls,  which  probably 
in  a  measure  makes  up  for  some  of  the  lack  of 
rain.  Just  now  I  am  down  the  road  from  camp 
writing  on  the  steering  wheel  of  one  of  the 
trucks  as  a  desk  and  hoping  that  it  will  not  take 
too  long  for  this  part  of  the  world  to  cool  off 
tonight,  for  it  is  difficult  to  make  one's  mind 
operate  when  it  is  as  warm  as  it  is  right  now. 

The  postman  disappointed  most  of  us  tonight, 
bringing  only  three  or  four  letters  and  that's  not 
near  enough  to  keep  a  whole  camp  satisfied.  But 
as  tomorrow  is  Sunday,  which  is  not  a  day  off  in 
the  war  zone,  we  will  hope  for  better  luck  when  he 
comes  tomorrow  night.  The  mail  service  is 
highly  inefficient  as  far  as  speed  is  concerned,  but 
it  seldom  fails  in  finally  delivering  what  is 
intrusted  to  it.  So  here's  hoping  for  the  morrow. 
I  sure  am  anxious  to  hear  from  you  all. 

Everything  is  going  well  with  me  here.  Our 
group  of  four  sections  needs  but  one  more  section 
to  make  the  group  complete,  and  that  one  will  be 
added  next  week.  Recruits  are  rapidly  arriving 
in  Paris  for  this  service  and  new  sections  are 
being  formed  as  fast  as  possible  and  will  be  sent 


76  Camion  Letters 


to  form  new  groups  as  soon  as  they  receive  the 
i  proper  training.  Our  group  will  consist  when 
completed  of:  Section  A— mostly  Cornell;  Sec- 
tion B — mostly  Andover;  Section  C — mostly 
Dartmouth;  and  Section  D — miscellaneous.  The 
group  lives  in  adjacent  barracks,  but  each  section 
has  its  own  Lieutenant  and  Commissary  and 
works  independent  of  the  others.  There  is  a 
friendly  rivalry  among  the  sections  in  many  ways, 
i.e.,  the  carrying  out  of  our  daily  work;  drill; 
baseball;  etc. 

On  the  whole  the  boys  get  along  together 
finely,  though  as  is  always  the  case  when  a  bunch 
of  men  get  together  there  comes  up  now  and  then 
a  little  friction  which  soon  wears  off  after  the 
application  of  the  right  kind  of  oil  and  everything 
is  lovely  again.  It  may  be  because  I  am  closer 
to  them  and  know  them  better,  but  I  feel  that 
of  all  the  sections  so  far  our  bunch  has  the  clean- 
est, finest  bunch  of  lads.  I  have  made  some  good 
friends  among  them.    There's  Rusty,  of  course; 

them (Cornell  '14)  whom  I  knew  well  at 

school;  is  a  prince  of  a  lad  who  I  have 

come  to  know  very  well,  for  we  spend  much  of 
our  spare  time  together,  and  as  he  is  Sergeant 


Camion  Letters  77 

of  the  rame  in  which  I  am  "  Corp."  we  work 
together.     You  will  be  glad  to  know  him  when 

we  get  back.    Then  there  is ,  who  is  Rusty's 

pal  and  who  is  one  of  those  short,  lanky  lads  who 
makes  every  one  near  him  at  all  times  laugh  at 
his  funny  remarks  and  antics.     There  are  a  lot 

of  fine  fellows  here!     and  I  knew 

better  than  any  of  the  rest.  So  with  so  many  old 
friends  and  new  a  fellow  can't  kick  at  his 
environment. 

Sunday  noon. — Couldn't  finish  this  last  night, 
as  I  was  called  in  for  orders  for  the  work  today, 
which  consists  of  a  night  trip.  Leaving  camp  at 
4  p.m.  we  drive  to  a  loading  station,  get  a  load 
of  "junk"  (munitions  or  materials),  then  drive 
toward  the  front,  arriving  at  a  little  shot-up  town 
at  about  6:30,  where  we  stop,  eat  a  cold  lunch, 
and  wait  until  dark.  Then  we  move  on  to  our 
destination,  an  artillery  supply  station,  where  we 
are  unloaded.  Then  back  to  camp  in  the  dark 
without  a  light  and  in  bed  at  about  2  a.m.,  if 
everything  goes  well.  Things  are  mighty  quiet 
here  along  the  front  and  for  the  past  week  we 
have  not  been  on  the  road  as  much  as  usual  or 
as  much  as  we  would  like  to  be.     Nevertheless 


7^  Camion  Letters 


there  is  plenty  to  do  getting  the  cars  in  shape, 
drilling,  etc.  There  is  work  around  the  barracks 
which  we  all  pitch  in  and  help  with,  such  as 
"  cleaning  house,"  peeling  spuds,  carrying  water, 
etc. 

If  you  think  we  are  poorly  fed,  just  listen  to 
this.  I  just  got  up  from  a  dinner  at  which  the 
following  was  inflicted  on  us :  ham,  French-fried 
new  potatoes,  lettuce  salad,  strawberries,  cherries, 
bread  and  jam.  What  do  you  think  of  that? 
Well,  yes,  I'll  admit  it  was  the  best  meal  we 
have  had  in  camp,  but  whoever  heard  of  a  soldier 
getting  strawberries  with  his  rations?  We  are 
surely  well  fed.  I  have  never  enjoyed  better 
health.  But  say — I'll  never  be  weaned  from 
little  U.  S.  Here's  what  I  dream  about  when 
I  dream  about  feed :  Home-made  bread,  Butter — 
Jelly!!  Pie — ice  cream — and  say — did  such  a 
thing  as  beefsteak  ever  exist  or  is  that  just  an 
idea  I  had?  I'm  not  complaining  one  bit,  for 
I'm  mighty  glad  I'm  here,  but— well,  I'll  sure  be 
glad  to  get  home  with  you  all,  and  eats  have  the 
least  to  do  with  those  sentiments. 

We  have  had  some  mighty  interesting  experi- 
ences here  at  camp  and  on  our  trips  in  spite  of  the 


Camion  Letters  79 

comparative  inactivity  at  the  front.  Only  last 
night  at  midnight  we  were  awakened  by  the  sound 
of  shrapnel  bursting  and  machine-gun  fire.  Some 
of  us  got  up  and  went  out  to  investigate  and  found 
the  cause  of  the  disturbance  to  be  a  German 
aeroplane  flying  in  this  vicinity;  dozens  of  power- 
ful searchlights  surrounded  the  camp  at  a  radius 
of  probably  a  mile.  These  moved  back  and  forth 
searching  the  darkness  for  the  intruder.  Star 
shells  were  sent  up  now  and  then  to  help  in  the 
illumination.  The  German  flew  low  over  camp. 
We  could  not  see  him,  but  he  caused  considerable 
commotion  and  some  excitement. 

A  few  days  ago  up  near  the  front  we  wit- 
nessed an  air  fight  between  a  German  and  two 
French  planes.  After  doing  some  damage  the 
German  got  away  safe.  It  was  a  fast  and  excit- 
ing game  while  it  lasted.  Not  long  ago  a  Ger- 
man plane  was  dropped  in  full  view  of  our  camp 
and  I  saw  (a  few  days  later)  a  French  observa- 
tion balloon  go  up  in  smoke,  the  occupants  land- 
ing safely  in  parachutes.  There  is  much  activity 
in  the  air,  there  being  many  "  flying "  camps 
near  here.  I  have  seen  as  many  as  twenty  aero- 
planes in  the  air  at  once  and  nearly  every  day 


8o  Camion  Letters 

one  sees  an  enemy  plane  being  fired  at.  It  is 
only  occasionally  that  a  ground  gun  hits  one,  but 
they  make  them  keep  high  up  in  the  air  and 
thus  lessen  their  chances  of  taking  photographs 
of  value. 

As  to  the  actual  fighting  on  the  ground  we  see 
but  little  of  it.  Our  trucks  supply,  almost  ex- 
clusively, the  artillery  which  is  located  back  of 
or  at  the  third  line  trenches.  We  carry  the  stuff 
as  close  as  possible  to  the  guns — usually,  because 
of  topography,  from  one-fourth  to  one-half  mile 
back,  and  the  stuff  is  transported  forward  by 
mules,  burros,  etc.  We  sometimes  walk  up  to  the 
guns  and  watch  them  operate  and  an  interesting 
sight  it  is.  The  75's  are  neat  little  guns  which 
fire  up  to  twenty-four  shells  a  minute.  The  first 
time  I  watched  one  fire  I  thought  the  concussion 
would  drop  me,  and  my  ears  rang  for  a  week. 
It  is  hard  to  see  how  the  gunners  stand  up  under 
the  strain  for  months  at  a  time. 

As  far  as  we  ourselves  are  concerned  there 
seems  to  be  but  little  danger  to  our  persons.  We 
do,  of  course,  pass  through  territory  that  is 
being  shelled,  but  the  chances  for  the  individual 
being  hit  are  slight.    The  objective  of  the  enemy 


Camion  Letters  8r 

in  these  places  back  of  the  line  is  usually  a 
bridge  or  road  or  important  building.  Knowing 
the  location  of  these  objects  they  aim  by  maps, 
etc.,  never  by  sight,  as  they  are  on  hills  out  of 
sight  of  anything  back  of  the  French  lines.  So 
when  a  shell  bursts  alongside  of  a  bridge  over 
which  the  convoi  is  travelling  and  buries  itself 
in  the  mud  you  say,  "  Missed  it,  you  son  of  a 
gun ! "  and  move  on. 

Often  only  a  few  cars  go  out  at  a  time  and 
it  has  come  to  be  quite  the  thing  to  see  which 
bunch  can  tell  the  wildest  tale  of  adventure  on 
returning  to  camp.  All  in  all,  this  work  is  just 
an  everyday  grind  out  of  which  one  who  wishes 
to  can  get  a  great  deal,  but  there  is  no  hero 
stuff  in  the  camion  service  and  Kipling  would 
have  a  hard  time  writing  a  poem  on  the  thrills  of 
a  truck  driver.  Nevertheless  I  will  have  much 
to  tell  you  when  I  return,  about  experiences  which 
some  of  the  boys  have  been  through. 

One  of  the  looked-forward-to  times  is  the  time 
when  we  are  considered  filthy  enough  to  warrant 
the  expenditure  of  a  little  gasoline  to  transport 
us — to  Heaven  via  the  swimming  hole.  On  these 
days  we  all  pile  into  one  of  the  trucks  and  go 


82  Camion  Letters 

to  a  wonderful  spot  in  a  little  river  a  few  miles 
from  camp.  Here  we  spend  two  hours  in  the 
double  luxury  of  bathing  and  swimming.  At 
these  times  we  are  a  great  curiosity  to  the  won- 
dering French.  Clothed  in  nature's  own  we 
actually  get  wet  all  over  and  the  French  soldiers 
don't  understand  it.  Well,  we  have  the  times 
of  our  lives  on  these  occasions  and  the  man  who 
refuses  to  go  is  a  social  outcast  until  the  next 
swim. 

So  you  see  our  life  here  is  a  pleasant  one. 
We  work  and  play  and  eat  and  sleep  and  I  for 
one  am  satisfied.  I  will  indeed  be  glad,  how- 
ever, when  this  hellish  affair  in  which  we  now 
are  participating  is  over.  It  is  such  a  waste,  not 
alone  in  materials, — man  will  always  be  able  to 
feed  and  clothe  himself, — but  what  is  more  im- 
portant, in  souls;  and  not  those  souls  which  have 
passed  on  because  of  the  war,  but  in  those  who 
still  live  and  will  be  alive  after  peace  is  declared. 
Men  cannot  stay  civilized  under  the  conditions 
imposed  on  both  French  and  German  privates. 
Living  in  holes  in  the  ground  with  nothing  much 
left  to  live  for;  hating  not  only  the  enemy,  but 
themselves  and  the  civilization  which  made  this 


Camion  Letters  83 

thing  possible,  they  can't  come  out  of  this 
dirt,  in  which  they  have  floundered  for  nearly 
three  years,  clean-hearted  and  straight.  The 
thing  has  rotted  the  very  core  of  the  civilization 
they  once  knew. 

It  is  hard  to  realize  over  there  the  misery  which 
these  people  have  so  willingly  suffered.  Witness 
the  story  of  the  whole  thing  written  on  the  face  of 
one  French  soldier  who  has  been  through  it  and 
you  have  proof.  My  hope  is  that  the  United 
States  will  not  send  a  few  men — she  must  send 
millions  of  them  if  she  does  not  wish  to  inflict  on 
a  few  the  suffering  and  stinting  of  the  soul  which 
all  France  has  borne  for  all  too  long  a  time. 

June  18.  Was  required  to  stop  yesterday  and 
take  charge  of  five  of  the  cars  on  convoy  which 
left  camp  at  4  p.m.  I  said  that  we  would 
reach  camp  at  about  2  a.m.,  but  didn't  realize 
where  we  were  going  to  unload  when  I  said  it. 
We  landed  back  in  camp  at  5  this  morning 
after  the  most  interesting  and  exciting  trip  we 
have  ever  taken.  Our  trip  went  as  I  said  it 
would  up  to  the  point  where  we  waited  for  dark 
before  proceeding.  When  we  started  out  again 
we  left  intervals  of  one  hundred  yards  between 


84  Camion  Letters 

camions  and  moved  toward  the  front.  We  had 
never  been  to  the  town  where  we  were  expected 
to  unload  and  soon  found  that  it  was  closer  to 
activities  than  we  had  ever  been  before.  For  the 
first  time  our  entire  convoy  was  in  the  region  of 
shell  fire. 

Shells  dropped  in  and  about  the  town,  which 
we  found  to  be  completely  demolished  and  used 
only  as  an  artillery  base.  As  soon  as  we  arrived 
we  put  the  trucks  in  as  safe  places  as  possible 
and  hurried  into  dug-outs,  there  to  remain  as 
long  as  the  bombardment  lasted.  It  was  a  most 
interesting  experience  and  an  eye-opener  and  a 
heart-breaker.  Hundreds  of  men  live  or  rather 
exist  in  this  town  under  ground.  They  either 
dig  out  vast  underground  rooms  or  clean  out  the 
debris  in  a  cellar  under  a  fallen  building  and 
here  put  together  beds  and  stay  when  not  at  the 
guns.  The  places  are  clean  but  damp  and  I  can 
hardly  realize  how  these  men  can  keep  their  health 
through  years  of  that  kind  of  life. 

During  a  lull  Tinkham  and  Slim  and  myself 
went  out  into  the  dark  and  walked  the  "  streets  " 
of  this  one  time  beautiful  village.  Everywhere 
was  wreckage;  piles  of  stones  which  once  were 


Camion  Letters  85 

buildings;  shell  craters  fifteen  feet  across  in  the 
streets  and  yards;  stark  trees  stripped  by  shells. 
Rats — the  town  was  full  of  them  and  added  to 
the  ghastly  impression  which  one  received  of  the 
place.  Well — things  began  to  get  hot  again  and 
we  made  fof  cover.  At  1 130  in  the  morning 
we  considered  it  safe  to  unload,  so  woke  up 
the  fellows  and  drove  to  the  unloading  station 
at  one  end  of  the  town.  Here  we  were  un- 
loaded by  a  gang  of  laborers  and  at  3  started 
back  for  the  camp.  Somehow,  although  I  was 
mighty  glad  to  have  been  on  the  trip,  it  seemed 
good  to  get  out  of  that  hell  hole  and  as  we 
travelled  back  into  the  more  quiet  country  and 
watched  the  sun  rise  and  breathed  the  cool,  clean 
morning  air  there  were  many  thoughtful  faces 
in  that  bunch  of  usually  so  light-hearted  fellows. 
Arriving  in  camp  at  5  this  morning  I  found 
your  fine  letter  waiting  for  me.  It  came  in  last 
night  when  I  was  out  on  the  job — coming  home 
as  I  did  nothing  could  have  been  more  welcome 
and  refreshing  than  the  good  news  from  the  best 
of  sisters.  I'll  sure  write  to  you  in  the  very 
near  future.  Truly  I'm  a  lucky  sinner — so  many 
good  things  happen  to  me — and  the  best  things 


86  Camion  Letters 

that  happen  to  me  here  are  the  letters  from  you 
all  with  the  good  news  from  home. 

Apropos  of  being  lucky  you  will  be  interested 
to  know  that  I  was  promoted  Sergeant  while  on 
the  job  last  night.  Our  First  Sergeant  was  made 
Chief  of  one  of  the  new  sections  the  day  before 
with  the  rank  of  Lieutenant,  and  so  they  pushed 
me  up  a  peg.  I  now  have  charge  of  one  of  the 
two  rames  in  the  convois  and  in  the  barracks. 

Some  of  the  boys  are  beginning  to  get  clip- 
pings from  the  papers  in  the  States  telling  in 
the  wildest  manner  possible  the  most  impossible 
tales  about  this  Service.  Every  time  one  of  the 
exaggerated  items  is  received  a  disgusted  and 
disappointed  crowd  is  the  result.  We  are  glad 
to  get  the  clippings,  but  are  sorry  that  the  dope 
cannot  be  handed  out  straight.  Take  what  the 
papers  say  about  this  Service  or  any  other  with 
a  grain  of  salt.  France  is  too  deeply  buried  in 
this  horrible  mud  called  war  to  be  greatly  affected 
by  the  arrival  in  its  midst  of  a  little  group  of 
American  boys,  even  though  we  do  hail  from 
Cornell. 

What  gets  me  is  that  most  of  the  articles  print 
CORNELL  and  America  and  then  follows  a  lot 


Camion  Letters  87 

of  piffle  about  Captain  Tinkham  and  his  bunch  of 
sturdy  Cornell  men  going  into  the  battle,  cheered 
by  the  French  and  English  soldiers  as  they  march 
into  the  trenches.  Imagine  a  Pierce  5-ton  truck 
marching  into  the  trenches!  I'm  proud  of  the 
Cornell  section,  however,  for  it  is  American  to 

the  core,  first  and  last.     The  other  day  a  

College  section  arrived  here.  Jumping  out  of 
the  truck  a  cheer  leader  jumped  upon  a  box  and 
led  a  lusty  "  rah,  rah  "  yell.  I  was  sur- 
prised and  more  than  pleased  at  the  reception 
this  demonstration  received  at  the  hands  of  our 
own  boys.  They  simply  rolled  on  the  ground 
with  laughter  and  jeered  the  "  prep  school  stuff  " 
down.  It  was  rough  on  the  new  bunch,  for  they 
are  fine  lads,  but  I  think  they  learned  the  lesson 
which  many  of  our  men  needed — that  it  is  no 

longer or  Cornell  or  XYZ  fraternity,  but  a 

man's  game  from  the  word  go. 


88  Camion  Letters 


XXIV 

June  25,  19 1 y. 

Since  my  last  letter  written  on  the  i6th,  I 
haven't  received  a  word  from  home.  The  mails 
are  surely  mighty  slow,  so  I'm  still  hoping  that 
tonight  will  bring  better  luck.  I  haven't  a  great 
deal  of  news  this  time,  for  our  routine  has  been 
about  the  same  every  day,  but  I'll  get  this  started 
so  as  to  have  my  stride  when  the  big  mail  comes 
in  and  I  have  the  fun  of  answering  the  home 
letters. 

First,  being  in  a  particularly  selfish  mood,  I'll 
begin  by  telling  about  myself.  I  guess  I  told 
you  in  my  last  letter  of  my  promotion.  I  am  now 
a  Sergeant — some  Sergeant— what  ?  Well,  a  few 
days  ago  I  was  told  the  welcome  news  that  I 
would  be  one  of  the  five  men  of  our  section  to 
go  to  Meaux.  I  told  you  of  Meaux  once,  but  had 
no  idea  that  my  chance  would  come  so  soon.  It 
is  there  that  men  are  trained  to  become  officers  of 
transport  sections, — so  if  I  make  good,  my  next 
step  will  be  Lieutenant  in  charge  of  a  section — 
I  surely  intend  to  work  for  it.  We  leave  here 
on  July  1st,  and  remain  at  the  school  five  weeks. 


Camion  Letters  89 

We  will  get  intensive  training  in  maps,  roads, 
etc. — engine  troubles  and  engines — magnetos, 
etc. — drill,  organization  of  the  army  and  of 
transportation,  etc.  Just  a  general  intensive 
course  to  fit  the  men  for  the  work  in  the  field! 
Rusty  goes  with  us,  so  I'll  have  a  mighty  good 
companion.  I  surely  am  glad  for  him — and  for 
myself  that  he  is  going, 

June  26.  Evening.  Here  I  am  again  after 
another  day  of  inactivity.  Usually  when  we  do 
not  go  out  on  the  road  we  are  kept  fairly  busy 
around  the  barracks,  but  today  we  almost  had 
a  day  off.  Up  at  seven.  Then  after  breakfast  we 
peeled  potatoes — which  was  as  usual  quite  a 
party.  The  fellows  all  gather  round  a  big  sack  of 
spuds  and  talk.  Once  in  a  while  a  peeled  potato 
finds  its  way  into  the  pan.  Then  the  boys  played 
ball  against  one  of  the  other  sections  and  I 
couldn't  resist  the  temptation  to  go  out  and  watch 
the  game.  It  was  sure  fun  and  "  we  "  won  1 1 
to  4. 

We  have  dinner  at  11,  when  in  camp.  After 
dinner  three  of  us  walked  up  to  town  and  had  a 
bath  at  the  infirmary,  where  there  is  a  fine  hot 
water  shower  bath  rigged  up.    It  is  located  in  a 


go  Camion  Letters 

stable,  but  it  is  a  great  luxury.  In  town  we  found 
a  woman  who  had  strawberries  to  sell  and  we 
jumped  at  the  chance.  She  took  us  to  her 
"  home  "  in  a  loft  over  the  shower,  where  she  and 
her  husband  told  us  of  their  three  sons. 

It  is  the  story  of  thousands  of  mothers  and 
fathers  here.  The  two  of  them  were  forced  out 
of  their  peasant  home  when  the  Germans  made 
their  first  advance  over  this  territory.  One  of  the 
sons  was  killed  at  Verdun,  one  is  a  prisoner  in 
Germany  now  and  has  been  since  1914.  The 
other  is  a  cavalryman  active  at  the  front  now. 
There  can  be  few  happy  moments  for  that  good 
woman.  Well,  we  bought  the  berries  and  took 
them  to  a  "  store,"  where  we  sat  down  and 
munched  cookies  and  ate  strawberries  to  our 
heart's  content.  On  returning  to  camp  I  just 
lazed  around  until  supper  time  and  that  brings  me 
up  to  now. 

I  saw  the  postman  come  and  go  again  tonight 
with  nothing  for  me.  I  am  consoled  by  the 
knowledge  that  when  he  does  come  with  my  mail 
there  will  be  a  great  deal  of  it.  I  do  long  for 
word  from  you  all. 

July  jst.    I  have  been  so  busy  since  starting 


Camion  Letters  91 

this  letter  that  this  is  my  first  chance  to  get  back 
to  it.  Let  me  tell  you  what  I  have  been  doing 
and  you  will  understand. 

Wednesday  night  I  was  told  to  be  ready  at  6 
a.m.  Thursday  for  a  trip  to  Paris  to  arrange  for 
the  officers'  school.  We — that  is  those  chosen 
from  the  several  sections — started  in  a  bunch, 
eighteen  of  us.  Arrived  at  Paris  about  noon,  we 
went  to  the  Field  Service  office,  were  sworn  in, 
and  then  had  a  day  and  a  half  to  ourselves,  which 
we  spent  seeing  Paris.  I  had  many  errands  to 
do  for  the  boys  in  my  section  out  at  the  front. 
The  time  passed  all  too  rapidly  and  we  had  to 
leave  Paris  again.  We  landed  here  last  night,  had 
supper  at  a  beautiful  old  hotel  and  then  were 
taken  out  to  camp.  I  sure  am  the  lucky  boy — 
and  for  the  life  of  me  I  can't  figure  out  what  I 
have  done  to  deserve  all  the  good  things  that 
come  my  way. 

This  school  is  a  wonder.  It  has  been  running 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  but  up  to  a  few 
weeks  ago  only  French  officers  were  trained 
here.  The  school  is  on  the  barracks  style  and  is 
strictly  military  in  its  routine,  but  as  to  equip- 
ment it  is  ideal.    Our  course  starts  tomorrow  so 


92  Camion  Letters 

I  can't  tell  about  the  work,  but  it  has  a  wonderful 
reputation  for  efficiency.  It  will  mean  five  weeks 
of  work  (back  to  college  again),  and  those  who 
pass  the  course  will  obtain  commissions  in  the 
Field  Service.  There  is  a  possibility  of  the 
United  States  taking  over  the  Service,  in  which 
case  Americans  graduated  from  Meaux  would  get 
commissions  in  the  United  States  Army. 

This  whole  thing  is  so  sudden  as  far  as  I  am 
concerned  and  I  know  so  little  about  the  school 
that  I  will  reserve  the  details  of  my  new  ex- 
perience for  my  future  letters. 

This  letter  I  must  close  and  get  off  to  you.  I 
am  certainly  pleased  with  the  news  of  the  activity 
in  the  United  States.  Troops  are  already  arriv- 
ing in  France  and  on  talking  to  some  of  the 
regulars  (marines  and  army)  in  Paris  I  was 
more  than  pleased,  in  fact  proud,  to  learn  of  the 
seriousness  with  which  the  United  States  is  taking 
the  all  too  serious  situation.  I  sure  hope  to  be  a 
regular  myself — soon. 

I  am  hoping  to  hear  from  you  all  soon.  Here's 
lots  of  love  to  you  all  and  best  of  wishes. 


Camion  Letters  93 

XXY 

July  8,  1917. 

This  is  Sunday  night  and  the  end  of  the 
first  week  in  the  new  camp.  It  has  been  a 
week  full  of  interest  and  profitable  employment. 
I  certainly  consider  myself  fortunate  in  having 
been  chosen  as  one  of  the  twenty  Americans 
here. 

The  finest  thing  that  happened  was  the  arrival 
of  two  good  letters  from  home.  It  was  a  long 
wait,  but  it  certainly  was  worth  it,  for  I  had  re- 
ceived no  word  from  the  States  since  the  middle 
of  June, 

Dad,  here's  to  company  A !  That  is  the  spirit 
that  is  going  to  win  this  war.  If  every  one 
will  give  to  the  extent  that  it  is  in  his  power  to 
give,  in  whatever  form  he  is  able,  it  will  not  be 
long  before  the  boys  in  khaki  can  finish  their 
round  trip.  What  you  call  doing  "  your  bit," 
Dad,  is  as  essential  and  as  big  a  thing  as  a  man's 
bit  who  qualifies  and  goes  to  the  front.  I  can't 
express  the  pride  I  take  in  the  spirit  you  show 
and  have  shown  throughout  this  crisis.  Let  me 
know  more  about  the  things  that  Uncle  Sam  is 


94  Camion  Letters 

doing.  Where  do  you  fellows  get  together  ?  Are 
the  people  really  heart  and  soul  behind  this  war  ? 
etc.,  etc.  I  tell  you  this  thing  is  more  serious 
than  most  people  think — almost  everything  de- 
pends on  the  United  States  and  she  came  in  just 
in  time.    I  know  that  this  is  so. 

We  have  entered  on  a  grim,  serious  business- 
and  the  length  of  time  we  will  be  in  it  depends 
absolutely  on  the  attitude  of  our  people.  We 
must  keep  cool  and  make  the  fewest  possible 
mistakes,  but  we  must  work  fast  and  hard.  We 
are  up  against  a  big  game — a  miserable  affair — 
if  we  blunder  there  is  no  telling  where  or  when 
we  will  end.  If  the  people  over  there  will  get 
just  one  word  fixed  in  their  minds  much  good 
will  be  accomplished  and  that  word  is — **  Seri- 
ous " !  This  is  not  child's  play — this  is  not  San 
Juan  Hill,  this  is  WAR — real  war, — and  the  mere 
fact  that  the  United  States  is  in  it  will  not  decide 
the  outcome.  The  United  States  must  realize 
that  she  is  up  against  the  stiffest  proposition  she 
has  ever  been  required  to  face  and  she  must  act 
accordingly. 

Politics  must  not  be  permitted  to  operate  in 
the  selection  of  men  to  officer, — or  in  any  of  the 


Camion  Letters  95 

military  operations.  I  hope  the  training  camps 
are  free  entirely  from  its  influence.  France  looks 
to  the  United  States  for  big  things.  France  is 
depending  on  us  and  we  must  not  disappoint  her. 

I'll  tell  you  now  how  I  am  situated  here,  at 
the  Officers'  School.  The  school  is  located  just 
outside  of  this  very  beautiful  city.  It  was  started 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war  for  the  purpose  of 
training  French  non-coms,  as  officers  in  the  Auto- 
mobile Service  of  the  armies.  Up  to  two  months 
ago  only  Frenchmen  were  trained  here,  but  on  the 
United  States  declaring  war  the  French  Army  re- 
quested the  Field  Service  to  branch  into  trans- 
port work  and  on  accepting  the  new  responsibility, 
Field  Service  men  became  eligible  (on  qualify- 
ing) for  the  French  Officers'  School.  The  school 
lasts  five  weeks  each  session  and  is  usually  full 
to  capacity.  We  are  only  the  second  bunch  of 
Americans  to  enter,  and  are  twenty  in  number. 

There  are  150  Frenchmen  here,  but  our  work 
being  in  English  we  have  our  own  barracks,  study 
rooms,  and  shops.  The  camp  consists  of  one  big 
office  and  supply  shack  80  ft.  x  20  ft.,  one  dining 
shack  to  accommodate  200  men  (and  the  meals 
are  good),  and  eight  barracks  80x20  ft.     .We 


g6  Camion  Letters 

have  one  of  these.  At  the  end  of  it  is  a  wash- 
room, then  two  rows  of  beds — ten  on  a  side. 
Then  a  partition  with  a  door  leading  into  our 
lecture-study  room,  which  is  about  20  ft.  by  30 
ft.,  and  arranged  with  blackboards,  long  tables, 
and  benches.  Here  we  receive  long  lectures  on 
the  technique  of  the  automobile,  lectures  on  the 
organization  of  the  French  Army  with  particular 
reference  to  the  Automobile  Service;  lectures  on 
topography  and  map  reading,  and  practice  in  the 
same;  lectures  on  organization  of  automobile 
units,  on  sanitation,  food,  and  care  of  men;  on 
duties  of  an  officer  in  respect  to  his  work  and  his 
men;  on  convoy  and  road  work,  etc.,  etc. 

Then  there  is  a  big  amphitheatre,  which  we 
of  Cornell  call  Bailey  Hall,  which  seats  the  en- 
tire camp,  and  there  are  given  lectures  on  engine 
mechanics,  etc.  There  are  three  long  shops  con- 
taining automobiles  and  parts  of  every  kind  used 
in  the  French  Army.  There  we  get  practical  work 
in  taking  down  machines,  every  part  of  which  we 
are  required  to  draw,  after  which  we  reassemble 
the  machines  and  put  them  in  working  order. 

There,  too,  we  get  lectures  on  shop  practice. 
We  get  demonstrations  in  welding,  soldering,  and 


Camion  Letters  97 

brazing — general  repairs,  etc.  The  whole  course 
is  given  with  the  aim  of  giving  the  men,  who 
are  to  officer  units  or  sections,  the  knowledge 
essential  to  hold  down  the  job  most  efficiently. 
There  are  two  other  long  shacks  used  as  study 
rooms  for  the  Frenchmen,  and  that  completes  the 
list  of  structures.  All  the  shacks  are  made  of  one 
thickness  of  wood  with  cinder  floors  and  are  very 
comfortable,  though  I  don't  see  how  the  poor 
fellows  exist  who  take  this  course  in  winter. 

Every  other  day  we  go  out  on  a  road  trip  and 
get  practice  in  the  handling  of  the  convoy  on 
service.  Each  man  gets  a  turn  as  officer  of  the 
day  and  takes  full  charge  of  the  doings  in  camp 
during  his  day  on.  The  other  days  we  drill  and 
each  gets  a  turn  at  handling  the  unit  on  the 
march.  We  are  up  at  5  a.m.  Breakfast  at  6 
and  then  lectures,  shop,  drill  or  convoy  until  6 
in  the  evening.  After  supper  until  10  is  the 
study  hour  and  we  usually  use  it.  There  are 
notes  to  copy,  drawings  to  make,  etc.,  etc.,  so 
that  I  can  truthfully  say  that  I  have  never  put  in 
such  long  hours  (except  when  I  took  Spanish). 
But,  though  long,  the  hours  are  most  profitable 
and  interesting.  Though  only  a  five  weeks'  course 


98  Camion  Letters 

it  is  exceedingly  intense  and  thoroughly  practical. 
Were  I  given  the  choice  between  this  and  Platts- 
burg  I  would  take  this,  for  we  have  seen  and 
are  seeing  the  methods  actually  used  at  the  front 
and  I  do  not  think  Plattsburg  can  equal  the 
actual  reality.  All  of  which  means  only  that  I  am 
satisfied.  If  I  pass  the  course  here  I  will  have  the 
same  rank  as  a  French  Lieutenant.  If  the  States 
takes  over  this  service  (as  I  hope  it  will)  there 
is  a  possibility  of  those  who  get  by  here  retaining 
the  same  positions  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

We  are  in  a  wonderful  part  of  France.  If 
you  will  look  up  the  advance  of  the  French  offen- 
sive you  will  realize  just  why.  Here  and  in  this 
vicinity  thousands  of  lives  were  lost  in  the  Battle 
of  the  Marne  in  the  defense  of  Paris.  The  coun- 
try in  this  immediate  vicinity  is  bristling  with 
historic  interest.  When  we  were  told  that  we 
Americans  would  have  a  holiday  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,  three  of  us, — Rusty,  Baker,  and  myself, — 
rented  bicycles  and  while  the  rest  went  to  Paris 
we  wandered  all  over  the  map,  visiting  all  the 
towns  included  in  the  Battle  of  the  Ourcq.  It 
was  a  wonderful  day  in  every  respect.  The 
scenery  about  here  is  exquisite — and  we  just  took 


Camion  Letters  99 

our  time  over  beautiful  roads,  into  towns  every 
roof  of  which  is  of  red  tile,  along  the  Marne  and 
the  Ourcq,  stopping  at  interesting  points,  talk- 
ing "  French  "  to  people  along  the  way  and  learn- 
ing much  of  interest.  I  am  not  allowed  to  name 
the  towns,  for  some  reason  or  other,  but  I  have  a 
postcard  collection  of  the  whole  thirty  miles, 
which  I'll  bring  back  with  me  and  then  I  can 
tell  you  all  about  it. 

The  14th  is  the  big  French  holiday  and  we 
get  Saturday  and  Sunday  off  then.  We  hope  to 
make  a  two-day  trip  at  that  time  to  we  don't 
know  where  yet,  but  feel  that  Paris  would  be  a 
waste  of  time  when  we  have  an  opportunity  to 
see  places  now  which  will  cover  pages  of  history 
in  the  future. 

Well,  that  is  about  all  the  news.  I'll  be  here 
until  August  4th,  after  which  time  I  don't  know 
where  I'll  be.  Better  send  mail  to  T.  M.  V.  526, 
until  further  notice  and  don't  forget  to  put  on 
Convois  Automobiles.  My  mail  will  be  for- 
warded to  me. 

I  am  sending  a  couple  of  pictures  of  myself 
along  just  to  show  what  I  look  like  on  the  job 
and   off.      One   was   taken  at  the  barracks   at 


lOo  Camion  Letters 

T.  M.  V.  526.  The  other  was  taken  by  one  of 
the  boys  somewhere  on  the  road  to  the  front. 
The  helmet  is  of  steel,  which  when  near  the 
front,  we  are  required  to  wear.  The  gas  mask 
over  my  left  shoulder  is  another  required  appen- 
dage and  the  map  case  on  my  right  side  contains 
military  maps  of  the  country  in  which  the  convoy 
is  working.  There  is  one  of  each  for  each  family 
if  you  wish. 

Well,  I  must  close  this  and  get  to  work.  I 
shall  write  more  often  while  here.  Am  enjoying 
the  best  of  health  and  have  nothing  to  complain 
about  and  everything  to  be  thankful  for.  Here's 
hoping  this  finds  you  all  well  and  happy.  My 
love  to  you  all. 


The  Writers 

of  the  Letters  are: 

I-XI. 

E.  H.  Pattison,  Cornell. 

XII-XIII. 

J.  L.  RoTHWELL,  Cornell. 

XIV. 

H.  Byrd,  Washington. 

XV. 

E.  I.  TiNKHAM,  Cornell. 

XVI. 

D.  HiNRiCHS,  Cornell. 

XVII. 

A,  Sherry,  Cornell. 

XVIII. 

R.  E.  Mackenzie,  Cornell. 

XIX. 

I.  Hall,  Massachusetts  histitute  of  Tech- 

nology. 

XX. 

R.  DuRLAND,  Massachusetts  Institute  of 

Technology. 

XXI-XXV. 

R.  A.  Browning,  Cornell. 

.3^5' 


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